Implementation of the blood donation preservation strategy at Indonesian red cross (IRC) blood donor unit (BDU) Banda Aceh during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background: The ongoing COVID-19 impacts the world of health, including IRC BDU. There is a need for a rapid response and countermeasures to meet the enormous challenge of balancing blood supply and demand. IRC BDU Banda Aceh in collaboration with the Aceh Government has carried out the civil servant (CS) movement for blood donation. This movement has been carried out since June 2020 until now. The CS donation movement is one of the IRC BDU strategies for the City of Banda Aceh in preserving donors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study aims to see the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of strategies at IRC BDU Banda Aceh City on the number of blood donors at IRC BDU Banda Aceh City. Methods: This type of research is a descriptive study with a cross sectional survey design. The first quarter of the analysis was carried out to compare the initial period of the 2020 pandemic with the non-pandemic year 2019 to see the impact of the pandemic on the number of blood donors. The second quarter analyzed the impact of the 2020 pandemic with the implementation of the strategy carried out in 2021 on the number of blood donors at IRC BDU Banda Aceh. Results: There was a 12.8% decrease in the number of blood donors in the 2020 period compared to the 2019 period (Mann Whitney test, p-value = 0.038). This shows the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the decline in the number of blood donors at IRC BDU Banda Aceh in 2020. In the second quarter, the government's strategy to deal with the shortage of blood supply with the CS donor movement succeeded in increasing the number of blood donors by 12.7% (Mann Whitney test, p-value = 0.242) in 2021 (compared to 2020). This shows that the implementation of the COVID-19 handling strategy from the local government plays an important role in increasing the number of blood donors at IRC BDU Banda Aceh. but there was no significant difference in the average number of donors each month. Conclusion: The Covid-19 pandemic had an impact on the decrease in blood donors at IRC BDU Banda Aceh. The regional government's strategy to mobilize the civil servant for blood donors has managed to fulfill the demand of blood supply to the normal level as pre-pandemic stock. This emphasizes the importance of stakeholders' policies to handling the blood donor shortage during extraordinary conditions such as pandemics.