Spokesman Colin Littlejohn said the shortage is due to a lack of appointments in Melbourne's central business district.

"We're looking for an additional 50 appointments to be made in Warrnambool in next two weeks," he said.

"We seem to be seeing higher number of cancellations with ease of coronavirus restrictions. In particular, people aren't travelling into their Melbourne CBD centre to give blood so we need our regional partners, like Warrnambool, to make those numbers up.

"We've always had a really good response from the people Warrnambool when we have appeals.

"The need for blood is an ongoing thing as blood doesn't last."

Mr Littlejohn all blood and plasma types are needed, particularly O+ and A+ blood as Lifeblood's supplies have dropped to two days' supply, meaning stocks of 71 per cent of the nation's blood types are under real pressure.

Nationally, around 1,200 donors are cancelling or don't turn up to their donations every day.

Lifeblood executive director Cath Stone said 31,000 donations are needed every week across Australia to help patients in times of trauma, major surgery, cancer treatment, pregnancy and a host of other situations.

"We saw the absolute best of the community throughout the pandemic with donors continuing to come in, however, this recent trend of decreasing appointments and increasing cancellations is concerning," she said

"Even if you don't know what blood type you have, we still need you - we need all blood types every day."

To book a blood or plasma donation visit lifeblood.com.au, call 13 14 95 or download the Donate Blood app.

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