Logic Chatikobo

Zimbabwe is facing serious shortages of Blood Group O, with the National Blood Services Zimbabwe (NBSZ) revealing that the country is only left with three days supply of the blood.

The development raises serious fears as the country heads to the Easter and Independence day holidays that pose a great risk of road traffic accidents.

NBSZ Chief Executive Officer, Ms Lucy Mary Marowa said the company is sitting on 1500 units of blood but out of those, about 450 units are blood group O. She revealed that the available Blood Group O units are enough to last for the next three days. She encouraged people to donate blood to fill up the stocks.

“We are urging blood donors to come in and donate so that we can get to five days cover for the blood group ‘O’. As we approach the Easter and Independence holidays, we have lined up several high-yielding panels between now and the closure of schools, meaning our teams are approaching boarding schools and also day schools to collect blood from their students.

“We are also approaching the community blood drives which are the usual galas that are in the communities as well as faith-based organisations and tertiary institutions. We are urging people to come in their numbers to give blood, particularly the blood group O donors”, she said.

Ms Marowa encouraged motorists to exercise caution during the festival season to reduce high rate of road traffic accidents as they cause high blood demand.