USFDA adds all blood sample collection tubes to medical device shortage list

The Food and Drug Administration also advised healthcare and laboratory personnel to minimize the use of blood collection tubes by performing blood draws only if medically necessary and consider sharing samples between lab departments if specimens are already available.

The regulator had in June added only sodium citrate tubes to the shortage list, and had issued an emergency use authorization a month later for Becton Dickinson's sodium citrate blood specimen collection tubes to better identify and treat bleeding disorder in patients with known or suspected COVID-19.

"The FDA continues to monitor the current situation to help ensure blood testing remains available for patients where testing is medically necessary," the regulator said, adding it recommends only tubes that are cleared by the FDA to be used for blood sample collection.