COVID-19 has caused a ripple effect with many things, including blood. It’s influenced drops and spikes in blood donations. Donation centers, labs and other medical facilities will need help transporting this sensitive material. That’s where R Courier comes in.

Blood Donation Shortage

The COVID-19 pandemic was first announced in Canada in March 2020. As news spread of the virus, Canadian Blood Services declared that it was facing a massive blood shortage because people were cancelling their donation appointments left and right.

People were afraid of contracting the virus during their time at the blood donation centre, even though CBS assured the public that their workers were focusing on strict safety precautions like sterilization and physical distancing. People’s understanding of the virus was also limited. Many were worried about contracting it through donations.

CBS was concerned about the possibility of a shortage. Blood donations are needed for accident victims, surgeries, cancer treatments and more. Dropping the supply in the midst of a pandemic was very dangerous. Public officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, took up the issue and urged eligible donors to make their appointments and give blood for the cause. This encouragement worked, and people came in to donate what they could.

However, this was months ago. As long as the pandemic is in-effect, there is a potential for a country-wide blood shortage.

Testing Blood Samples

Blood donations aren’t only being used to help hospital patients. Now, medical experts are planning to test blood donations for COVID-19 antibodies to determine the extent of the pandemic’s spread. This will make it easier to track infection rates, especially for groups that have been unaware of their infections because they showed no clear symptoms.

They also want to test for antibodies because that could mean that some groups are building an immunity to the virus. This would make removing lockdown restrictions and reopening public spaces much easier. The infection rates would be lower because of herd immunity. But, antibody tests have yet to reveal this hopeful conclusion. However, researchers at the University of Toronto are hopeful that antibody tests will help them understand and create an effective COVID-19 vaccine in the near future.

Delivering Samples

Blood samples — particularly blood samples that could potentially be carrying COVID-19 — are biohazardous. That’s why they need a professional medical courier service to handle and transport them.

Here at R Courier we have couriers that are well-trained in the transportation of dangerous goods and that have experience delivering biohazardous materials. R Courier has been delivering coronavirus samples for Public Health throughout the pandemic. If you’re a donation center, laboratory or medical facility that needs to have samples transported across the Greater Toronto Area, this is the company to call.

Experience with delivering biohazardous substances isn’t the only thing that we bring to the table. We are reliable, responsible and effective. If timeliness is essential for your deliveries, then we can help. You can place your order online and set the priority to match your needs. So, if the order is urgent, the courier will make the delivery a top priority and push to get the package to you as quickly as possible.

If you’re worried about delays or lost packages, we use the latest tracking technology so that you can keep a close eye on your order through every step of delivery, until it arrives at its final drop-off. You can also use our ETA Board online to get a clear estimate of when the package is going to arrive. You don’t have to feel like you’re left in the dark. R Courier keeps you in the know.

Blood donations and samples are very important right now. If you need to have them delivered safely and quickly in the Greater Toronto Area, you should do it with the help of our couriers.