Related Articles Prepare to adapt Blood supply and transfusion support during the first 2 weeks of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus COVID 19 pandemic affecting Washington State Transfusion 2020 Mar 21 Authors Pagano MB Hess JR Tsang HC Staley E Gernsheimer T Sen N Clark C Nester T Bailey C Alcorn K Abstract BACKGROUND The first coronavirus COVID 19 case was reported in United States US in the state of Washington approximately three months after the outbreak in Wuhan China Three weeks later the US federal government declared the pandemic a national emergency The number of confirmed COVID 19 positive cases increased rather rapidly and changed routine daily activities of the community STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS This brief report describes the response from the hospital the regional blood center and the hospital based transfusion services to the events that took place in the community during the initial phases of the pandemic RESULTS In Washington State the first week of March started with 4 confirmed cases and ended with 150 by the end of the second week of March there were more than 700 cases of confirmed COVID 19 During the first week blood donations dropped significantly Blood units provided from blood centers of non affected areas of the country helped keep inventory stable and allow for routine hospital operations The hospital based transfusion service began prospective triaging of blood orders to monitor and prioritize blood utilization In the second week blood donations recovered and the hospital postponed elective procedures to ensure staff and personal protective equipment were appropriate for the care of critical patients CONCLUSION As community activities are disrupted and hospital activities switch from routine operations to pandemic focused and urgent care oriented the blood supply and utilization requires a number of transformations PMID 32198754 PubMed as supplied by publisher