Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest pandemic of the 21st century, affecting 216 countries, over 80 million people and more than 17 lacs confirmed deaths across the globe as of end of the August. To prevent the community spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the Government of India announced national lockdown which affected the blood transfusion services also. There are around 3000 licensed blood banks all over the country, In this situation the major challenge for blood transfusion services was to maintain adequate and uninterrupted blood supply in a tertiary level multi-specialty hospital. Material and Method: The retrospective study was done in tertiary care hospital included challenges faced by Blood transfusion services and responses to overcome those challenges by the Blood transfusion services in COVID-19 pandemic crisis. A comparative analysis of Blood donations was done from January to August month with the previous year donations. Results & Discussion: In month of January and February the total blood donations were more in Pandemic year (2020) than previous year (2019). In March when 1st confirmed case of COVID-19 detected in Rajasthan, the percentage of blood donations decreased to 70.4% in month of March. After announcement of lockdown, blood donations reduced drastically and remain 20.1%, 31.9%, and 20.7% respectively in months of April, May, and June in comparison to previous year donations in these months. After shifting of COVID-19 facilities to another separate hospital and phase wise steps of Unlock by the government the percentage increased in month of July and August up to 63% and 70% respectively. Conclusion: In COVID-19 pandemic blood centres required coordination right from government authorities to directly to the public. BTS should have their own strategic plan to deal with challenges faced during pandemic and should respond promptly.
