One-hundred individuals from across the country were honoured at a ceremony in Hanoi on June 12 for their blood donation efforts.

The event was aimed at marking annual World Blood Donor Day on June 14.

At the ceremony, Vice State President Nguyen Thi Doan praised the most outstanding organisations and individuals, saying many of them gave blood not less than 50 times during the year and made great efforts in calling for other people to respond to the blood donation movement.

She highly valued the operations of the National Steering Board for Voluntary Blood Donation, the Vietnam Red Cross, the Health Ministry, units and localities nationwide, which actively took part in the movement.

There are currently between 3,000-4,000 units in the country's blood reserves. Voluntary donors have contributed more than 85 percent of the blood supply, said Director of the National Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion Nguyen Anh Tri.

The national blood donation rate is still far lower than the recommended World Health Organisation rate of around 2 percent of the population. The health sector collected more than 675,000 blood units last year, accounting for 0.85 percent of Vietnam 's population./.