Ki-hong Park, Director of the Blood Donation Division of the Korean Red Cross Blood Management Headquarters, spoke these words at the We Are One 'Live ON Youth ON' blood donation campaign conference held in the second floor auditorium of Seoul Dongbu Blood Centre of the Korean Red Cross on the morning of the 27th August.

18,819 people had previously donated blood over 17 days, setting a new domestic record that was certified by the Korea Record Institute as being 'the single largest blood donation within the shortest period of time'. The undertaking to break this current record has begun only three months later.

Jin-suk Yang, head of the Logistics and Transportation department of Shincheonji Church of Jesus, predicted at the meeting held at Dongbu Blood Centre that the target of 70,000 donors is expected to increase by more than roughly 30,000 donors, and that a total expected figure of roughly 100,000 people would participate in the group blood donation campaign. He said, “We have 70,000 young people, and in addition to that, we have appointed people of different ages as honorary members to participate in the blood donation campaign.”

In particular, this campaign is being held at a time when blood supply levels are critical. According to the Blood Management Headquarters of the Korean Red Cross, blood supply is seasonally affected. August is the off-season when all schools are on break, office workers go on vacation and the weather is very hot, so blood supply levels are lower than usual. Blood reserves need to be held at an average of 5 days or more for stable medical activity, but in August, it usually drops to 3.5 days, approaching the 'amber' stage.

Moreover, with more than 100,000 confirmed cases a day due to the resurgence of COVID-19, the number of people in quarantine increases and the amount of movement decreases. Furthermore, as the number of critical cases increases, the demand for blood becomes very high.

In the past month, the trend of red blood cell preparations has been falling. The trend illustrates a drop from 40,000 units on the 28th of last month to about 30,000 units on the 13th and 23,210 units today. In particular, in the case of O blood type, the number has been reduced to 4898 units, which equates to 3.4 days' supply.

Director Park said, “August is always a difficult time for blood inventories, but due to the Coronavirus, the stocks have dropped sharply. Right now, they are held for about 4 days, but in the case of O blood type, reserves are held at about 3 days, so it's already reached a somewhat critical level.”