LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas — COVID-19 has created a lot of shortages and that includes blood donations.
Centers are looking for creative ways to get people through the doors and into the seats. Some phlebotomists said that they've never seen it this bad.
"At one point we were getting like 60-70 people a day and now maybe we get 14 a day," said Cassie Bowles, a supervisor at the Arkansas Blood Institute (ABI).
The blood donation center serves more than 40 hospitals across the state.
It needs around 1,200 donations daily to keep up with the need. Right now, they are only sustaining a 2-3 day window of supply.
"I've worked with people who have been in blood banking for 20+ years and they've never seen it quite like this," said Joshua Gwin, ABI's public relations representative.
To try and keep people coming, they are doing antibody testing to detect previous COVID cases for customers. They're also doing A1C testing to see if you may have diabetes or pre-diabetes.
ABI is also offering a free Little Rock Zoo admission ticket and t-shirt when a person donates.
Red Cross serves the Northwest and Northeast parts of the state. They are not only seeing a shortage in Arkansas, but nationwide.
Red Cross of Arkansas has seen a 10% decrease in donor participation.
COVID created a shortage of donations, but it's dropped even more the past couple months as people started going back to work and school from their summer breaks.
But Red Cross is hopeful donations will eventually get back on track.
"I mean if anything we've seen through COVID is that people are resilient. People find a way," said John Brimley with Red Cross of Arkansas.