SOME hospitals in Sarawak have said they are running low on blood – an unintended consequence of the movement control order in effect for the past week – and are now appealing for donation.

Regular donors, for fear of catching Covid-19, are keeping away from the hospitals.

The state has recorded five deaths so far.

The Malaysian Red Crescent Society (MRCS), which supports Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) blood bank on blood replenishment, said the blood groups that are in critically short supply are the B and AB groups.

Sarawak director of health Dr Chin Zin Hing said the shortage started when the country was in the late containment phase.

“This has had an impact on the blood collection centre,” he said, as the movement restriction order forced the cancellation of the blood donation campaigns.

Chin also said all precautions to prevent the spread of the virus will be taken when donors come in to make a donation.

“We will make sure there is social distancing and other infection control measures,” he said.

To bring the blood stock back to the “satisfactory level ready for use”, the blood bank, with the assistance of MRCS and Kuching City South Council, has launched a donation drive.

They have turned Dewan Masyarakat in Padungan into a blood collection centre.

The collection centre is operational from today and will open on weekdays from 9am to 4pm.

“Dewan Masyarakat offers a very spacious, conducive and safe environment for donors to give blood,” Umping Lindang, a MRCS field officer, said.

In appealing to “caring Malaysians” to donate, Lindang said this difficult time of the Covid-19 pandemic makes the challenges of the healthcare workers even greater.

Also today, SGH’s respiratory clinic, which was moved to the indoor Stadium Perpaduan in Petra Jaya, has become operational.

The clinic – to treat those with fever, cough and other respiratory ailments not related to the Covid-19 virus – was moved to relieve the congestion at the SGH and to keep the patients as far away from the hospital as possible.

Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah told accompanying reporters when inspecting the clinic today that the patients “should not have any contact with any person under investigation for Covid-19 or those suspected to contact the sickness” at the hospital.

“We want to avoid those suspected of having Covid-19 to mix with others,” Uggah, who chairs the disaster management committee, said.

Five more people in the state tested positive for the viral infection today.

Two were detected at SGH, another two at Sibu Hospital with one at Miri Hospital.

The five new cases mean 87 people have contracted Covid-19 since the first case was reported on March 13.

Authorities in the state are brace for the spike in numbers as the 14-day incubation period is reaching its end next week. – March 24, 2020.