"I encourage everyone who is able to donate blood to do so," he said in a tweet, adding that “blood saves lives.”
Duda took to Twitter as the country’s health service marked World Blood Donor Day in an annual drive on Sunday.
Presidential aides noted that Duda last month donated blood himself in response to an appeal from Polish hospitals.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Łukasz Szumowski thanked blood donors across the country, saying they “have demonstrated their selflessness and sensitivity in the face of the coronavirus epidemic.”
Earlier this year doctors in Poland appealed to people to give blood after the number of donors reportedly dropped by more than half in the wake of the COVID-19 health crisis.
June 14 marked World Blood Donor Day, a global event held by the World Health Organisation every year to raise awareness of the importance of blood donation.
The main message of the campaign is that giving blood saves lives.
A Polish government minister who has recovered from the COVID-19 disease in April urged coronavirus survivors to donate blood plasma to help severely ill patients.
Doctors say the plasma of people who have recovered from the coronavirus contains antibodies that can help seriously ill patients fight the infection.
A total of 29,392 people have tested positive for the COVID-19 disease in Poland, with 1,247 deaths from the coronavirus so far, officials said on Sunday.
Meanwhile, more than 14,226 patients have recovered from the disease in the country, according to the Polish health ministry.
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Source: IAR