Donors at the Giọt hồng tri ân (Grateful Red Drops) blood donation festival at the National Convention Centre in Hà Nội on Sunday. — VNS Photo Thanh Hải

HÀ NỘI — Thousands of volunteers, mainly youngsters and students, donated blood at the Giọt hồng tri ân (Grateful Red Drops) blood donation festival at the National Convention Centre in Hà Nội on Sunday.

The two-day festival is the last event of the eight Hành trình đỏ (Red Journey), a communication and blood donation and campaign that took place in 42 provinces and cities across the country over the past 58 days.

The programme took place in the capital city amid a new wave of COVID-19 infections in several provinces and cities, including Hà Nội, HCM City, Đà Nẵng and Quảng Nam.

The event aimed to ensure both safe blood donation and supplement blood reserves for medical facilities in the northern region.

The National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion (NIHBT) carried out various measures to ensure safety for blood donors during the time of the pandemic. The institute arranged a dense medical team, ensuring every citizen who comes to donate blood has a thorough medical examination. In addition, it also encouraged people to register via an app on their phones to shorten the waiting time and reduce the density of donors.

NIHBT director of Bạch Quốc Khánh – head of the organisation board of the Red Journey 2020, said that this year’s results have exceeded expectations with the largest number of participating localities and volume of collected blood units.

“It was also the first time the Steering Committee for Voluntary Blood Donation in localities worked closely the health sector’s COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control in co-ordinating blood collection in accordance with the blood demand of each province or city," said Khánh.

With the initial goal of receiving 80,000 blood units, the campaign has organised 302 blood donation points, collecting more than 101,600 units of blood.

The Red Journey is the country’s largest-scale blood donation mobilisation campaign that runs from June 6 until August 8 with the participation of thousands of donors and volunteers in 42 provinces and cities nationwide. In 2019, it received more than 85,000 units of blood in 265 blood donation points in 39 provinces and cities across the country.

Organised by the National Steering Committee for Blood Donation and the Ministry of Health, the Red Cross societies since 2013, the Red Journey has received more than 330,000 units of blood, taking place in 54 provinces and cities. It has contributed to promoting communication, raising awareness about blood donation, and promoting the blood donation movement. It is also an opportunity to increase communication about congenital haemolytic disease and train and maintain a volunteer force for the blood donation movement. — VNS