KUCHING: A blood donation drive was jointly organised by the Information Department (JaPen) and Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) Blood Bank at Mydin Vista Tunku in Petrajaya yesterday (Oct 16).
The drive, according to Sarawak JaPen director Swady Guliling, aimed to attract 100 eligible blood donors.
“This was the third time the drive was held under the Sepakat@Komuniti programme in the hope of ensuring a constant blood supply for the hospital.
“The theme for this drive is ‘Keluarga Malaysia, Malaysia Prihatin’, to show that those who come to donate blood are concerned and willing to donate blood for the safety of others.
“Today, we are looking for 100 blood donors, but as of this morning, we have already welcomed 30 blood donors. I believe we can gather more than that for the whole day,” he said when launching the blood donation drive yesterday.
Swady (second left) hands over a goodie bag to the blood donor Nurshahlan (second left) while Dr Mohammad Masrin (centre) looks on. 
Swady (second left) hands over a goodie bag to a blood donor Latifah (second left) as Dr Mohammad (centre) looks on.
Head of SGH Transfusion and Blood Bank Services Department Dr Mohammad Masrin Md Zahrin encouraged the public to come forward to donate blood.
He explained that rigorous standard operating procedures (SOPs) would be in place to avoid Covid-19 transmission as well as well-trained staff to manage the donors.
“So far, no research has proven that a suspected case of Covid-19 infection may be transmitted by blood donation.
“As usual, we will conduct preliminary screening, such as a MySejahtera scan and temperature check as well as reviewing the donors’ medical history before determining whether or not the donor is eligible to donate.
“If a donor has a close contact or is Covid-19 positive, he or she can only donate blood after 14 days of full recovery,” he said.
Dr Mohammad also welcomed other agencies or organisations to join the SGH Blood Bank in organising blood donation drives.
“We invite more agencies and organisations to join us so those who are interested should contact any of Sarawak’s 19 blood banks and we will discuss how to make the programme a reality,” he added.
Also present during the programme were the Boneshaker Chopper Group led by its president Datuk Azizi Morni and JaPen Kuching officers.
