There’s a critical need for blood donations right now. Vitalant, formerly Bloodsource, has had to cancel nearly 800 blood drives in the North State since early March, meaning they missed more than 25,000 uncollected pints. Now, with some medical restrictions lifted, many surgeries and other procedures that had been delayed are being performed, increasing the need by about 25% over the last few weeks. Every two seconds a patient somewhere in Northern California needs a transfusion. Blood banks are going to extreme measures to keep their donors safe from exposure to Coronavirus. Especially needed right now are A-Negative, B-Negative and both types of O. Platelets are desperately needed as well. Appointments can be made at vitalant.org or 877-25-vital.