OVERVIEW: Blood shortage delay New England surgeries, London uses soccer stadiums for stepped up vaccinations.

BOSTON — Some New England hospitals are delaying or rescheduling surgeries because of a shortage of blood donations during the pandemic.

“We haven’t seen anything like this in about 30 or 40 years at least,” Dr. Vishesh Chhibber, director of transfusion medicine at UMass Memorial Health, told the Boston Globe.

Periodic, localized blood shortages are not uncommon, but this shortage is “unprecedented in its scope,” said Dr. Claudia Cohn, chief medical officer for the American Association of Blood Banks.

Officials point toward a number of factors including the typical summer drop in blood donations at a time when surgeries are increasing because of procedures that were postponed during the pandemic.

Nationwide, the Red Cross normally has a five-day supply of all types of blood, said Kelly Isenor, spokesperson for the Red Cross of Massachusetts,

Right now, the supply of the sorely needed type O blood would last only a half-day. “It’s going out faster than it’s coming in,” Isenor said.

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MORE ON THE PANDEMIC:

— Qatar to require fans at 2022 World Cup to be vaccinated

— US sending Taiwan 2.5 million vaccine doses, tripling pledge

— Uganda Olympic team member tests positive for coronavirus

— Afghanistan races to ramp up oxygen supplies as infections soar

— US families angered that coronavirus restrictions still keep them from loved ones in nursing homes even as elderly vaccinations are widespread

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Follow more of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

LISBON, Portugal — Portuguese authorities have confirmed suspicions that the new delta variant of the coronavirus is driving a spike in new cases in the Lisbon region.

Portugal’s National Health Institute said Sunday that the highly infectious variant that was first found in India has a prevalence of 60% of new cases in the nation’s capital.

LONDON — London soccer stadiums have been transformed into “super pop-up” vaccination sites as Britain tries to get younger adults to be inoculated against COVID-19.

More than four-fifths of adults in the U.K. have had at least one shot of vaccine, and the government wants everyone 18 and up to have a jab by July 19, the date earmarked for the lifting of remaining social and economic restrictions. ...

Britain is seeing a surge in coronavirus cases driven by the more infectious delta variant first identified in India.

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea says it plans to allow social gatherings of up to six people and allow restaurants and cafes to operate until midnight in the densely populated Seoul area, starting from July 1.

Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol said Sunday the eased distancing rules are aimed at “finding a balance between quarantine and (effort to) return to normal amid the prolonged COVID 19 pandemic.” ...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice declared an end to the state’s indoor mask requirement Sunday as a $1 million winner was revealed in a drawing for residents who have received the coronavirus vaccine.

Karen Foley of Mineral Wells won the top prize announced by on a sweltering Father’s Day at the Capitol Complex in Charleston during a celebration of the state’s 158th birthday.

Prizes in separate drawings included custom pickup trucks, state park weekend trips, lifetime hunting and fishing licenses, and hunting rifles and shotguns. ...

BANGOR, Maine — Inspired by critical shortages during the pandemic, University of Maine chemical engineers are working to make sure people never run out of sanitizer again.

William DeSisto, a professor of chemical and biomedical engineering, worked with distillers around the state to get ethanol to make the sanitizer early in the pandemic when store shelves were bare.

His work is now focusing on a different kind of disinfectant, hypochlorous acid, the Bangor Daily news reported.

Hypochlorous acid is 70 to 80 times more effective than bleach and less toxic for people, but it needs to be produced locally because it has a shorter shelf life, DeSisto said. ...