Alabama hospitals say calls for urgent blood donations have been answered by hundreds, shoring up an immediate need.

The call now is for volunteers to schedule donations for the weeks and months ahead.

“We are in a much better position today then we were two weeks ago when we were beginning to hear that blood drives had been canceled,” Marisa Marquis, medical director of transfusion services at UAB hospital said Sunday.

UAB, like other hospitals in Alabama, is working with American Red Cross and LifeSouth to collect blood. The groups put out a call for blood donations from the public when scheduled blood drives across the state were cancelled after schools and universities shut down due to spread of the coronavirus.

Marquis says hospitals have reduced the amount of surgeries they are doing, which has also helped mitigate the demand for blood supply.

UAB asks Alabamians of all blood types to schedule blood donations for mid-April through the summer months, as blood donations only last six weeks after they are collected.

“(People) can make an appointment in their calendar to donate in two weeks, three, five weeks, six weeks,” said Marquis. “That’s exactly what we need, donations coming in all the time.”

Marquis says if it is not possible to schedule an appointment with Red Cross right away, please check back in a week or two to try again.

She says going forward, blood will be needed for all sorts of patients.

“There are patients that need emergency surgeries that need blood. There are trauma victims that still come to hospitals to be treated, and blood saves them from dying from hemorrhage,” she said.

“There are patients with sickle cell disease that need multiple units of blood to stay well.”

She says thus far donors have kept a safe distance from one another, and her staff will consider best safety procedures in the days ahead if the coronavirus spread continues.

So far, the response to the call for donations has been stronger than Marquis could have imagined.

“It’s very, very encouraging to see how the population answered the call to donate.”

Go to LifeSouth or Red Cross to find an appointment time in your area. Donors will need a photo ID and must make an appointment online.