Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Canadian Blood Services has issued an immediate call for donors in light of a recent lull in attendance and rising cancellations.
The organization said in a statement on Tuesday that it is "feeling the strain" to collect blood, platelets and plasma.
It said Canada's national blood inventory has fallen by 25 per cent since the start of April, with new and returning donors of all blood types urged to help by donating over the coming weeks.
"Donor attendance had remained strong during past waves of COVID-19, but we have seen a notable shift since mid-March," Rick Prinzen, Canadian Blood Services' chief supply chain officer and vice-president of donor relations, said.
While one in two people in Canada are eligible to donate, only one in 81 do, Canadian Blood Services said.
Prinzen added that Canadian Blood Services has seen a 10 per cent increase in late cancellations and missed appointments due to recent illness, isolation requirements and the lifting of restrictions, as well as a seven per cent rise in deferrals in part because of increased travel.
"We are grateful to donors for their support, but at the beginning of the pandemic we said the effort to ensure there's enough blood to meet patient needs would be continuous like a marathon, not a sprint," Prinzen said.
"We are now in a precarious situation as we emerge from the sixth wave of COVID-19. Given the uncertainty of future variants and what living with COVID-19 is going to look like, along with the increased need for donors over the summer months that are typically a challenging time for blood and plasma collections, patients rely on new and returning donors to show up and help us this week, next month and for months to come. Lives depend on it."
Canadian Blood Services says appointments to donate are required but same-day appointments are available each day at many donor centres and community events.
Infection-control measures are still in place, including wellness screening, mandatory masking and physical distancing. All staff also are fully vaccinated.
Donors who have to cancel an appointment are asked to re-book for the following month to help Canadian Blood Services find a replacement.
National Blood Donor Week is also June 12-18 this year.
To book an appointment to donate, download the GiveBlood app, call 1-888-2-DONATE (1-888-236-6283) or book at blood.ca.
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.