Muscat – The Department of Blood Banks Services (DBBS) has appealed to people to donate blood at the Central Blood Bank in Bausher.

A statement issued by DBBS on Monday said, ‘We appeal to everyone with O+, B+ and O- blood types to donate blood today at the Central Blood Bank in Baushar.

It informed that it can be contacted for appointments to donate platelets via WhatsApp on 94555648.

DBBS also confirmed that preliminary statistics indicate an increase in the number of blood units collected at the Central Blood Bank in 2021, compared to 2020, despite the disruptions resulting from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information, the number of blood donors increased by 6.7 per cent between 2016 and 2020. There were 61,679 blood donors in Ministry of Health’s centres in the five-year period.