A decade-low blood supply for this time of year has the American Red Cross reaching out to ask residents to consider donating into the December holiday season.

Fewer blood drives at schools and colleges contributed to a 34% drop in new blood donors compared with last year, a steep decline that could threaten needed medical care for some people.

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Keith Burbank is currently a fulltime reporter covering Alameda County and Oakland news for Bay City News. He has also worked on the Data Points project for Local News Matters, finding trends and stories about the region through data. In 2019, he was a California Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, producing a series about homeless deaths in Santa Clara County. He worked as a swing shift editor for the newswire for several years as well. Outside of journalism, Keith enjoys computer programming, math, economics and music.