Swipe right for Blood Donor Connect: How this students’ initiative is locating donors for patients

These students had witnessed first-hand the devastation that the pandemic had brought upon a lot of families. Their initiative, Blood Donor Connect, has helped arrange blood for several people amid Covid times.

The Covid-19 pandemic has made it considerably difficult to get blood donors because of the lockdown. Moreover, matters are further complicated by those recovering from Covid or who just got vaccinated. This is because vaccinated people and Covid-positive recovered people cannot donate blood for 28 days. When the second wave of Covid-19 struck, social media was flooded with inquiries and requests for blood transfusions, plasma etc. Seeing this dire state of affairs, a group of medical students decided to help people connect patients with blood donors. These students had witnessed first-hand the devastation that the pandemic had brought upon a lot of families. Their initiative, Blood Donor Connect, has helped arrange blood for several people amid Covid times. "We realised that there was a severe shortage of blood donors in the city, there was especially a lot of reluctance amongst donors due to Covid. People are scared to go to hospitals and worried about getting infected," said Riya Gupta, a volunteer at Blood Donor Connect.