UTC students donate on the first day of the Bloodanooga drive.
A total of 218 pints of blood were donated on the first day of Bloodanooga, the two-day blood drive at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
The need for blood donations is acute. For the first time ever, the American Red Cross declared a national blood shortage in January 2022 while the omicron variant of COVID-19 surged. It’s the worst blood shortage in over a decade, the Red Cross said.
The extreme shortage is due to the decline in donations since March 2020 when COVID cause donation cancellations, staffing limitations and health uncertainty.
