Hanoi (VNA) - Thousands of volunteers, mainly youngsters and students,donated blood at the “Giot hong tri an” (Grateful Red Drops)blood donation festival in Hanoi on August 2.

Thetwo-day festival is the last event of the 8th “Hanh trinh do” (RedJourney), a communication and blood donation and campaign that took place in 42provinces and cities across the country over the past 58 days. 

Theprogramme took place in the capital city amid a new wave of COVID-19 infectionsin several provinces and cities, including Da Nang, Quang Nam, Hanoi, HCM City,and Dak Lak.

Theevent aimed to ensure both safe blood donation and supplement blood reservesfor medical facilities in the northern region.

TheNational Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion (NIHBT) carried outvarious measures to ensure safety for blood donors during the time of thepandemic. The institute arranged a dense medical team, ensuring every citizenwho comes to donate blood has a thorough medical examination. In addition, italso encouraged people to register via an app on their phones to shorten thewaiting time and reduce the density of donors.

NIHBTDirector Bach Quoc Khanh, head of the organising board of the Red Journey 2020,said that this year’s results have exceeded expectations with thelargest number of participating localities and volume of collectedblood units.

This was also the first time the Steering Committee for Voluntary Blood Donation inlocalities worked closely the health sector’s COVID-19 pandemic prevention andcontrol in coordinating blood collection in accordance with the blood demand ofeach province or city, said Khanh.

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

The RedJourney is the country’s largest-scale blood donation mobilisationcampaign that runs from June 6 until August 8 with the participation ofthousands of donors and volunteers in 42 provinces and cities nationwide. In2019, it received more than 85,000 units of blood in 265 blood donation pointsin 39 provinces and cities across the country.

Organised bythe National Steering Committee for Blood Donation and the Ministry of Health,the Red Cross societies since 2013, the Red Journey has received more than330,000 units of blood, taking place in 54 provinces and cities. It hascontributed to promoting communication, raising awareness about blood donation,and promoting the blood donation movement. It is also an opportunity toincrease communication about congenital haemolytic disease and train andmaintain a volunteer force for the blood donation movement./.