Now, donate blood 14 days after taking Covid jab

BENGALURU: In good news for blood banks and those in need of blood transfusion, the National Blood Transfusion Council has reduced the time to donate blood after the Covid vaccination from 28 days to 14. TNIE was the first to highlight the earlier order, which had hit blood donations.

“As the government has made the vaccination available for all above 18 years and no live attenuated vaccine is available in the country, an expert group, under the chairmanship of DGHS, Dr Sunil Kumar, was constituted to review the advisory,” the order said.

After deliberations, it was decided to reduce the deferral period, said the document signed by Dr. Sunil Gupta, NBTC director, on May 5.Alphonse Kurian, a member of the Lions club and coordinator of Lions Bloodline had written to NBTC, saying the original order meant that a person could not donate for 56 days, taking into account both doses.