A citizen in Mekong Delta Hậu Giang Province donates blood during a campaign launched by local authorities on January 12. —VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The entire nation is striving to mobilise 1.5 per cent of the population to donate 1.5 million blood units this year, according to a conference held by the national steering committee for blood donation on Friday.

At the event to review blood donation campaigns in 2021 and deploy tasks for 2022, President of the Vietnam Red Cross Society (VRCS) Bùi Thị Hòa made a series of recommendations toward achieving the target.

Related offices must build plans to set out quotas suitable to each area and sector as well as refresh their communications works in line with the pandemic, she stressed.

Further activities should be conducted to raise people’s awareness of the benefits and safety of blood donations and to attract more donors, while donation campaigns should be operated safely following pandemic-prevention measures.

She said the widespread impact of COVID-19 in 2021 seriously affected work in blood donation. 

Throughout the year, close to 10,000 blood donation communications and mobilisation campaigns took place, attracting more than 1.5 million participants. More groups joined the donations, including military personnel, civil servants, Buddhist monks and nuns, and religious dignitaries.

As a result, more than 1.3 million blood units were collected nationwide, basically meeting first aid and treatment demand, particularly during COVID-19 outbreaks.

Nearly 20,000 blood units were sent to aid cities and provinces in the south as the fourth wave of the pandemic in Việt Nam began in April last year. — VNS