By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – The American Red Cross says the need for blood is high as 150 blood drives were canceled across the state in the last week due to bitter temperatures and the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Probably with all the drives canceled, the estimate is we lost about 21,000 blood donations that we planned on collecting that we we’re unable to collect because drives had to be canceled, shortened, closed early, all those things, ” Steve Stoewer, the Director for Blood Services at the American Red Cross, told WJBC’s Marc Strauss. “It’s put us in a bit of a bind. For January, things were going great; we kind of hit mild weather and everything, but then this happened.”

Due to bitter cold temperatures over the past couple of weeks, the Red Cross canceled about a dozen blood drives in the Twin-Cities.

“It has been interesting, to say the least. But, as we see the nicer weather that things are looking better, and we’re trying to get people to help us restock that blood supply that really took a hit over the past couple of weeks,” added Stoewer.

The Red Cross is asking for all blood type patients to sign up on their website at AmericanRedCross.org.

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].