The blood center with the Beijing Municipal Red Cross says it is
running out of A-type blood and asks for more donors with the
mentioned blood type.
The aggregate blood stockpiles with the center have been on
decline since the beginning of the week and by 10?AM on
Wednesday, there were 4,345 units -- each unit equivalent to 200 ml
-- of blood kept in stock.
In accordance with normal blood-type storage proportion, A-type
blood was in obvious scarcity, Thursday's The Beijing News
cited sources from the center as saying.
The volume of blood collected via the center's buses on the
streets has been dropping due to factors such as cold weather, many
students of colleges of higher learning either preparing for final
exams of the semester on campus or having left town for vacation,
plus transient workers also heading for home to spend the
forthcoming Spring Festival with their beloved ones.
On Tuesday, the center only collected 608 units of blood via its
13 blood buses on the street, but it sold 1,081 units of blood to
various hospitals in the national capital in the same day.
(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2006)
