Too early to say in my opinion.The unfolding epidemic in Italy...

Too early to say in my opinion.

The unfolding epidemic in Italy might give us some clues, as the northern regions currently most affected by Covid-19 represent around 50% of the total Italian blood donations nationally. There's some evidence that donating blood leads to a short-term lowering of the body's resistance to infections, so it's perhaps unsurprising that people are reluctant to give blood under such circumstances.

Covid-19 is present in the blood of infected individuals, but I don't know if there's a quick and reliable test, although I dare say they're working pretty hard on developing one. If they can test donor blood for Covid-19, along with HIV, Hepatitis, and Syphilis, etc., I suppose CSL could, in theory, boost collections by raising the price they pay to donors, but I have no idea as to whether they could increase throughput in the donor centres sufficiently to provide a meaningful boost to supply.

The irony is that the go-to treatment for the secondary bacterial infections that result from a Covid-19 infection is an iv immunoglobulin infusion derived from human plasma. If the country's blood donation system is non-functional, they will be relying on frozen product, which is going to run out sooner or later. I suppose China could coerce vulnerable citizens (e.g. military personnel, prisoners, CCP members, etc.) into 'donating' blood, but it seems unlikely that this is going to solve their problems; in China 2 people need a blood transfusion every second.

The Red Cross tells us that every blood donation saves 3 lives; If this is true, then the situation in Chinese hospitals, with zero stocks of whole blood, and no new donor supplies, must be pretty dire.