MENDOTA – Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center (MVRBC) will hold a blood drive at OSF HealthCare Saint Paul Medical Center in Mendota from noon until 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6 in Conference Room C.

Volunteer blood donors are invited to support the local blood supply and schedule an appointment to give blood by calling the Community Health Services Department at (815) 539-1411 (appointments required). Please bring a photo ID for use in donor registration.

Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center is also accepting referrals from individuals who have recovered from a COVID-19 infection and would now like to be scheduled for plasma donation to help newly diagnosed patients fight the disease. Potential donors who can provide documentation of a laboratory-confirmed positive test for COVID-19 and meet other health and safety criteria, will be scheduled for a COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma (CCP) donation. Individual donors and care providers may refer themselves or their patients via the referral form available at www.bloodcenter.org or call (833) 610-1025. For additional information, potential donors or physicians may send inquiries to patientservices@mvrbc.org.

CCP donors must be fully recovered from their COVID-19 infection and must meet all standard eligibility criteria for blood donation. Plasma will only be collected from donors with laboratory-confirmed tests showing they had a COVID-19 infection and must be at least 28 days from the last date they experienced symptoms. These donors will have antibodies to help fight COVID-19 and will be scheduled for a plasma donation at a nearby Donor Center or mobile blood drive.

MVRBC is based in Davenport, Iowa, with regional operations in Urbana (Community Blood Services of Illinois) and Springfield (Central Illinois Community Blood Center). The Blood Center is the exclusive provider of blood and blood components to 95 hospitals in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Wisconsin, including 11 of 13 OSF HealthCare facilities. (For information on MVRBC’s service to OSF HealthCare, see https://newsroom.osfhealthcare.org/blood-provider-expands-service-to-6-additional-osf-hospitals/.