One dose of donated blood can help save as many as three lives, Health Minister Vili Beros said in a message on Monday marking the National Voluntary Blood Donors Day, observed on 25 October.

“The Blood Donors Day is an opportunity to thank all those who have made this noble gesture and invite others to do the same. A big thank-you to the Croatian Red Cross for its commitment, for encouraging citizens to donate blood and for saving lives on a daily basis,” Beros said on Twitter.

The Croatian Red Cross (HCK) also thanked the blood donors, saying they were “a true value of this society.”

The HCK brings together the largest number of blood donors in Croatia, meeting 80 percent of the healthcare sector’s demand for blood donations. It said that despite the coronavirus pandemic, it managed to collect 142,265 doses of blood, of the total of 176,938 doses collected in Croatia last year.