CM's blood donation initiative sees stellar success with 1,290 units collected on 1st day
Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has taken up an initiative to organise blood donation camps across the state in the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown, praised the move of the police and went to Netaji Indoor Stadium where Kolkata Police organised a blood donation camp which will continue till April 30 leaving the Sundays. The initiative of the Chief Minister has yielded stellar result as the collection on the first day itself was 1290 units, well over the set target.
In a separate move, Deputy Mayor, Atin Ghosh has taken up an initiative through which five persons will donate blood daily at Manicktala Blood Bank.
According to senior police officials of both state and Kolkata Police, due to lockdown blood donors cannot go to the blood banks. Also, it has been advised to avoid social gathering. As a result clubs and other organisations who used to arrange blood donation camps, cannot do anything. In this situation, police units across the state have decided to donate blood in each district to decrease the crisis as much as possible.
Kolkata Police has decided to
allow 50 police personnel each day to donate blood to avoid crowd. The
police units under West Bengal Police have also made arrangements to avoid gathering. This apart while police
personnel will be donating blood,
social distancing as advised by World Health Organisation (WHO) will be followed. According to sources in the Health department, 15 lakh units of blood is required annually in the state and around 13.5 lakh units are procured through blood donation camps. So on an average, at least 1 lakh unit of blood should be collected in a month. However, in March not more than 10 per cent have been collected.
Regarding the crisis, Ghosh said: "We have more than 1,000 donors in our list who are ready to donate blood. Regularly five such persons will be donating blood till situation normalises. We are making arrangements for the transportation of the donors to and fro from their residences. It will help the children suffering from thalassemia who are not getting transfusion because of this shortage. Meanwhile, on Wednesday 50 police personnel from the Combat battalion donated blood. In a separate incident in Howrah, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Asoke Nath Chattopadhyaya helped a 78-year-old man who was suffering from several ailments by sending food. The elderly person's son-in-law who lives in Kolkata contacted Howrah City Police following which Chattaopadhyay arranged food for the elderly person.
