Touch of Humanity, an NGO, will organise an in-house blood donation camp on the premises of Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital (MMCH) at Panbazar here from Wednesday to Friday.

The camp will be organised in collaboration with MMCH from 10am to 3pm on all three days. “There is an urgent need of an in-house donation camp in order to run the blood banks smoothly during the coronavirus crisis. To support and encourage the doctors as well as ensure the wellbeing of the patients who need blood transfusion, we have taken this step. We will strictly adhere to social distancing norms,” NGO founder-member Hirak Jyoti Bora said.

There has been a severe shortage of blood in banks across hospitals during the lockdown. Blood donation also came to a standstill as organisations and hospitals could not organise camps. Marwari Hospitals located at Athgaon here had said its blood stocks had depleted. However, the hospital managed to replenish its stock after urgent facilitation.

Fakrul Alam, assistant director, blood transfusion services, Assam State AIDS Control Society, said though blood bank stocks are fast running out with donations coming in few and far between during the lockdown, the situation was slowly returning to normal.

The city requires more than 300 units of blood daily. Of this, 10 to 15 per cent comes from blood donation and 30 to 40 per cent from replacement cells of various blood banks. Assam requires 700 to 800 units of blood daily in its 33 district civil hospitals, but after the lockdown, it was getting an average of 500 to 600 units.