The National Steering Committee for Voluntary Blood Donation has set a goal to collect over 1.5 million blood units in 2021, with 99 percent of which donated by volunteers, according to Le Gia Tien, Director of the committee's Standing Office.

The National Steering Committee for Voluntary Blood Donation sets a goal to collect
over 1.5 million blood units in 2021 - Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Speaking at a conference to review the voluntary blood donation campaign in 2020 and set tasks for 2021 in Hanoi on January 15, Tien said the rate of blood donors in the population is expected  to reach 1.6 percent, respectively, in the year.

To that end, application of information technologies will be promoted in communication activities in order to raise public awareness about the benefits of voluntary blood donation and safe blood transfusion, and effectively manage blood givers, Tien noted.

Last year, the mobilisation of people to voluntarily donate blood faced many obstacles due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tien said. He, however, stressed that with many initiatives and great efforts to overcome difficulties, the Steering Committee for Voluntary Blood Donation received approximately 1.4 million units of blood, helping millions of patients, especially amid the pandemic.

The majority of blood units were donated by volunteers, equivalent to nearly 1.5 percent of the population. Half of the givers donated their blood more than once.

During the year, the Steering Committee for Voluntary Blood Donation at all levels organised more than 13,000 communication campaigns on voluntary blood donation with more than 1.6 million participants.

Many communication campaigns and voluntary blood donation events were organized creatively and successfully such as the Lunar New Year Blood Donation Campaign, Red Spring Festival, Red Blood Drops Summer, and the Red Journey Programme.

So far, over 4,000 clubs of blood donors with over 125,000 members have been established nationwide. More than 25,800 individuals, families and collectives were honoured in recognition of their achievements in voluntary blood donation.