Date Posted: June 10, 2026

Author/s: Kieth Ken S. Amoguis, Ma. Edith Alegrine T. Booth, Daniel B. Caballero, Kyle Edison A. Dela Cruz, Michelle A. Ortiz Luis, Aleck Vianca S. Perez, Chlaritz T. Sebuala, Normel C. Adarve and Jerny M. Vargas

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic started in December of 2019 and unfortunately, it continues to affect millions of lives today. The healthcare sector was particularly affected straining its performance and resources, in which one of the most affected areas was the blood banking operations. Due to the high transmissibility of the virus several concerns regarding safety on staffs and patients became an issue affecting blood banking procedures leading to decrease in supply of blood products which resulted in hampering the demand for transfusion.

Objective: This study aimed to identify the concerns of and the associated measures implemented on blood banking facilities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic on safety, demand and supply of blood products.

Search Methods: The authors used the PRISMA framework to systematically search and review relevant literatures electronically from PubMed, Sciencedirect, ProQuest, and ClinicalKey databases.

Selection Criteria: Based on the PRISMA framework, relevant articles were included using keywords such as blood banking in relation to COVID-19 and blood banking concerns and measures undertaken in response to COVID-19. Out of 1,965 journal articles examined, 1,915 (97%) were excluded for they are not related to the research subject, being duplicates, and having abstracts only and not of full texts articles.

Data Collection and Analysis: The articles undergone three screening processes; first, three independent reviewers collected all data regarding the search results from the databases and select journal titles that were relevant to the topic, as well as filtering out duplicate journals, those that were not journal articles, and those with no abstracts; second; the researches review the abstracts which contain keywords and concepts related to the scope of this study; third; articles’ full texts are reviewed by seven independent reviewers to determine if they have useful information wherein, they must contain relevant concerns and measures of blood banks in response to COVID-19, which are then categorized into safety issues, supply and demand for blood products.

Result and Conclusion: The data show that in maintaining blood supply, measures of increasing the donor recruitment by setting programs and strategies encouraging blood donation and decreasing the utilization of blood products by canceling or postponing elective surgeries were commonly undertaken. In addressing the demand for COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma (CP) treatment, different organizations and agencies regulate blood banking functions to allow CP treatment. Lastly, to prevent blood wastage due to decreased blood demand, coordination with other blood banks was needed to balance the supply. The implications of the detailed concerns and measures may serve as a reference for other blood banking facilities to adopt in their practice and operations in dealing with similar challenges.

Keywords:
Transfusion medicine, convalescent plasma therapy, safety protocols, blood supply, blood product demand