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Background COVID‐19 first appeared in Iran on 19 February 2020, and then spread rapidly over the country. In this article, we review the action plan of the Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization with respect to this disease. Method and materials We collected data on blood donations and RBC inventory for the first 8 weeks of the outbreak. We also evaluated the trend of blood donations and RBC inventory and compared them with the data of the past year. We include a summary of actions taken by the National Committee on Management of COVID‐19 outbreak. Results Blood donations decreased from 33 275 to 23 465 units during the first 2 weeks of the outbreak with a corresponding decrease in the RBC inventory. But after that, donations gradually increased from 23 465 to 29 665 units. RBC inventory levels improved at the same time. Then, the Iranian New Year’s holiday resulted in another downward trend. After the holiday, blood donations revived, along with the RBC inventory. Discussion Although it appears that this virus cannot be transmitted through transfusion, changes in lifestyle had a significant impact on reducing blood supply. Following implemented measures, we saw an upward trend in blood donations and an adequate supply of RBC units in blood centres, helped by a reduction in demand by hospitals. Blood centres need to be more prepared to manage future viral disasters, especially in case of transfusion‐transmissible infections.

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Background As the frequency of human platelet antigens varies between different ethnic groups and the data about the HPA gene frequency in Iran have been absent yet, the purpose of this study was to determine HPA‐1 to HPA‐5 and HPA‐15 allele frequency among Iranians. Materials and methods HPA‐1, HPA‐2, HPA‐3, HPA‐4, HPA‐5 and HPA‐15 typing was performed by the polymerase chain reaction–sequence‐specific primer techniques (PCR‐SSP) for 210 subjects [Including 100 blood donors, 55 hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) recipient/donor pairs]. Results The frequencies of HPA phenotypes were determined as follows: HPA‐1a/1a: 98%, HPA‐1a/1b:2%, HPA‐2a/2a: 8/.5%, HPA‐2a/2b: 91·5%, HPA‐3a/3a: 21%, HPA‐3a/3b: 67·2%, HPA‐3b/3b: 22·8%, HPA‐4a/4a: 100%, HPA‐5a/5a: 99·5%, HPA‐5a/5b: 0·5%, HPA‐15a/15a: 14·2%, HPA‐15a/15b: 67·2% and HPA‐15b/15b: 18·6%. Conclusion HPA‐4b was absent and there was not any homozygosity for HPA‐1b/1b, HPA‐2b/2b and HPA‐5b/5b besides no HPA‐1b/b, HPA‐2b/b and HPA‐5b/b homozygosity was found. So it seems that HPA‐1a, HPA‐2a, HPA‐4a and HPA‐5a might not be involved in the alloimmunization and transfusion reactions on the Iranian population but HPA‐15a and HPA3a. Furthermore, extensive studies covering diverse ethnic groups, in the field of platelet immunobiology, will help to find the local pattern more precisely.