Daily COVID-19 digest

In Canada and around the globe, information on COVID-19 is rapidly evolving.  We want to make it easy for employees to access the latest updates on how Canadian Blood Services is responding.   

Here is the latest.  

Thank you for your participation!

Thank you to everyone who was able to join the live Q&A with our CEO today. Your feedback and questions were very insightful as we move ahead with our response to COVID-19. For those who were unable to participate, a recording of the audio conference will be available on the employee portal in the coming days. You will receive a notification through the daily digest once the recording is available along with an overview of the questions asked.

If you did not have the opportunity to ask a question, we encourage you to do so by sending them to communications@blood.ca with the email title “TOWNHALL”.  Please remember to include your name, role and region so we can make sure your comments are captured in our overview. We look forward to continuing the open dialogue with Graham — keep an eye out for details about the next live session.

Temperature checks: To further mitigate the risk of asymptomatic COVID-19 infected donors entering our collections events, today the decision was made to move temperature checks for donors from screening booths to our active wellness checkpoints.  Our operations team is reviewing the implementation plan with the goal of moving it through to sites as quickly as possible. A decision was also made today to pilot employee temperature “self-checks” in a few of our collection sites. We look forward to sharing the details of that pilot with you once it is underway.

Wellness Wednesday — kid-proof cooking: Preparing and eating food together during the pandemic can be a great way to reconnect and spend some quality time with anyone you are practicing physical distancing with. For those of us with kids, introducing new foods might seem like an even greater challenge these days — but getting your kids involved in the cooking process can help! That’s why this week’s wellness champion, Katie O’Brien, senior consultant, wellness, diversity and inclusion, is here with her son Henry to cook some delicious (and kid-proof) comfort food together.  This video isn’t just for those with kids — a cheesy macaroni casserole is truly a timeless, all-ages dish. 

The need goes on —former MLA building connections: Blair’s story serves to remind us that what we do matters. At around age five, he began to experience the symptoms of hereditary angioedema (HAE), a rare disease affecting about 700 Canadians. It’s caused by a problem with the gene that makes a blood protein called C1 inhibitor, resulting in spontaneous swelling in different areas of the body. Blair manages his symptoms with a plasma protein product and uses his experience to build connections everywhere he goes. He says, “When I became an MLA, I wondered how I could make a difference. I realized the best thing I could do is bring what I knew best to the table — including knowledge of rare diseases.” Read more about Blair’s story on blood.ca.

About the daily digest  

This daily digest will highlight the latest policy and employee support measures, resources to help you manage our new reality and original content like articles and videos to remind us that what we do matters.  Things are moving quickly, so you can expect to hear from us daily. No access to email? No problem — all this information and more can be found on blood.ca/employees from any device, no login required.    

Click here to read past editions of the daily digest.    

Have questions? Check out blood.ca/employees or email us at communications@blood.ca