The Red Cross on Friday held a blood donation drive to mark World Blood Donor Day, with transfusion centres set up around town.

The chief executive and medical director of the Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service, Dr Lee Cheuk-kwong, called on the public to donate blood with inventory being low in the past few weeks due to weather, adding that blood has a limited shelf life.

"Whenever there is rain, particularly heavy rain, people may just stay at home or go to shopping malls instead of going out to donations, so this is one of the limiting factors. Also, in rainy days, some companies may not be able to work with us in arranging the blood donation drive," he said.

"Blood donations are still needed for many types of medical treatment and at the moment there's no replacement, so we need people to come out for donations."

He especially called on people with blood types O and A to come forward.

Lee said the service has been targeting young people, especially university students.

"Over the past few years after the pandemic, we have resumed some programmes in the young donors recruitment, in particular in the university," he said.

"Visiting schools remains one of our main objectives in our current recruitment strategies. Only the problem for us is fewer classes and students in the secondary schools, with those eligible mostly in form four, five and six."

The service collected a total of 210,103 units of blood in 2023, with just over 124,000 donors. Both figures were up from the year before.

Lee said the donation process is straightforward and rewarding, adding that each donation saves three lives.