Loreto Fiesta Commission announces its traditional blood donor drive for August 17
Even though the fiestas cannot take place, the commission has decided to continue with its traditional blood donation day.
Archive image of the Blood Donation celebrated in previous years by the Comissió de Festes.
Monday 9th August 2021 – ÁLVARO MONFORT with Mike Smith
The Fiesta Commission of Mare de Déu de Loreto has organised its traditional blood donor drive for next Tuesday 17th August, an event that it has carried out every year, even if the fiestas themselves cannot take place, as happened last year and cannot be held this year either, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aware of the current need for donations, the commission has decided to give priority to the donation drive which benefits the Communidad Valenciana Transfusions Centre.
The headquarters of the commission, located in Calle Severo Ochoa in the port, will as always be the location of the donation drive, which has reached its ninth edition since it adopted the name in honour of Dionís Henarejos, a member of the fiesta commission who dedicated himself to the donation of blood, and will be carried out in two shifts – one in the morning and one of the afternoon – to try and obtain the largest number of donations as possible.
The hours will be 9.45am to 1.30pm and then 4.30pm to 8.30pm and the fiesta commission will prepare the location according to the recommendations made by the Transfusions Centre.
All the necessary health protocols will be in place to guarantee the safety of those coming along to donate, such as the mandatory use of a mask at all times, the washing of hands with soap and water before using the hydroalcoholic gel, and the maintenance of the required safety distance between the donation area and the waiting zone. The beds will be covered with disposable sheets which will be changed after each donor has given blood whilst the pends that the organization will be supplying to fill out the necessary forms will not be re-used.
Finally, anyone who presents any symptoms that may be associated with COVID-19 is asked not to attend the donation session.
IMPORTANT NOTE
Any person, British or otherwise, who lived in the UK for five or more cumulative years between 1980 and 1996 cannot give blood due to safety concerns surrounding the bovine spongiform encephalopathy/variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (BSE/vCJD) outbreak of the early to mid 1990s. The ban also exists for anyone who had a blood transfusion in the UK.
