Although the Taiwan Blood Services Foundation yesterday said the nation’s blood supply is gradually increasing, as the local COVID-19 situation has improved, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) encouraged people to donate blood, as surgeries that had been postponed are also resuming.
After the nation’s biggest local COVID-19 outbreak began in May, the supply of blood across the nation dropped to about 30 to 40 percent of the usual reserve, down to only about 32,000 bags per week, foundation public relations director Li Lei (黎蕾) said.
As the COVID-19 situation was steadily brought under control, more people were willing to donate blood, she said, adding that the supply increased by about 2,000 bags per week, so that blood banks now receive about 48,000 bags per week.
Photo: CNA
An average of about 50,000 bags per week were available before the outbreak, she added.
The blood bank in Taipei now has an average of about 7.7 days of blood supply available: 6.4 days of type A blood, 8.8 days of type B, 8.3 days of type O and 5.4 days of type AB, Li said.
Rotary International would help promote blood donation at its 11 branches in Taiwan, and aims to collect about 4,000 bags of blood and 2,000 empty blood bags per branch, the foundation told a news conference in Taipei.
Chen, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center, also attended the news conference.
He said the Taiwan Blood Service Foundation has been doing a great job in maintaining the quality and steady supply of blood in Taiwan.
While fewer people were willing to donate blood after the middle of May, the blood supply has recently increased, he said.
However, hospitals were asked to reduce capacity during a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert, which began on May 19, suspending medical procedures that were not urgent, so blood demand is expected to increase, Chen said.
He encouraged people to continue donating blood, saying that people can make a reservation online on the foundation’s Web site.
Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟), who won a gold medal with Lee Yang (李洋) in the badminton men’s doubles at the Tokyo Olympics, appeared in a prerecorded video clip for the foundation, encouraging people to donate blood.
Wang said Chen had once told people to avoid going out during the COVID-19 outbreak, but now they can continue donating blood, so he also encourages everyone to donate at blood donation centers, which are comfortable and maintain social distancing.
Meanwhile, the foundation said that while previously people who received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine were asked to wait at least 14 days before donating blood, people who have received an AstraZeneca, Medigen, Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are allowed to donate blood without waiting, if they are not feeling ill after receiving the vaccine.
The rule change was decided on at an Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting on July 11, the foundation added.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) plans to take to the courts of the Australian Open for the first time as a competitor in the high-stakes 1 Point Slam. The Australian Open yesterday afternoon announced the news on its official Instagram account, welcoming Chou — who celebrates his 47th birthday on Sunday — to the star-studded lineup of the tournament’s signature warm-up event. “From being the King of Mandarin Pop filling stadiums with his music to being Kato from The Green Hornet and now shifting focus to being a dedicated tennis player — welcome @jaychou to the 1 Point Slam and #AusOpen,” the
RSS