Appeal yields 444 bags of blood

The National Blood Transfusion Centre has thanked all those who responded to its urgent appeal, and donated a total of 444 bags of blood since Friday.

This enabled the medical authorities to carry out operations as planned on Monday. The operations had been at risk of being called off, particularly because of a low supply of 'O' positive blood.

The centre warned, however, that it is not out of the woods. This morning it had a reserve of 117 bags of 'O' positive blood when the ideal was to have 170 bags.

The reserves of other blood types were satisfactory, as long as no major incidents took place.

Hospitals use some 50 bags of blood a day.

The centre said it was urging the people to continue to donate blood.