Mumbai: 19-year-old pharma entrepreneur Arjun Deshpande has started an initiative, ‘By People, For People’, to link emergency necessities for Covid patients and affected families so they can be accessed at one source.

The announcement made online recorded a good response, gathering over 4000 hits within two hours, and has now crossed over 53,000 views. Many people on social media platforms expressed support for the initiative and youngsters were seen coming forward to volunteer and upload verified leads to Covid resources.

The young founder and CEO of Generic Aadhaar said, ““We have started a Covid-19 campaign which can be helpful for the 132 crore people of India and save millions of lives through this website for innovative networking and one-source solutions. Many youths across cities are getting connected and uploading verified helpline numbers and leads for oxygen cylinders, medicines, hospitals, beds, doctors, free first-aid kits, ambulance services, free food providers, blood donors, plasma and many other emergency services. I personally believe that this is the need of the hour when the nation must stand through any medium.”

Generic Aadhaar is a fast-growing pharma venture aimed at providing accessible and affordable life-saving medicines across Tier-1, Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities in India. The company has reached over 130 cities in the country and wants to counter expensive and fraudulent medicines.

About the new initiative, Deshpande said, “The one-source website will help the masses as it will display verified numbers for Covid resources and families can access the numbers and addresses near their localities as per their requirements. If anyone wants to add any contacts or facilities, they will be verified by a backend team. This will definitely help affected families and save their time during an emergency which may save a life.”

Generic Aadhaar earlier distributed remdesivir injections free of cost and free first-aid kits to frontline workers and the Maharashtra Police.

“Many have reached us in many ways for help. The company stands with them in this crisis as it is the need of the hour. Our pharma company came up with this unique idea for emergency services. We also believe if other companies with great resources come forward to this battleground, then India will soon be a coronavirus-free nation,” concluded Deshpande. 

Chandigarh: Amid a surge in coronavirus cases in urban areas, cases are being reported from some of Haryana’s rural areas as well. These cases are coming mostly from Rohtak, Sonipat and Bhiwani. “An increase in corona cases has been reported in the rural areas of the state as well,” Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said. In the wake of this, people residing in rural areas are required to follow guidelines, he added.

It is learnt that several patients may have lost their lives during the last few days in a village named Titauli in Rohtak. Lack of medical facilities, oxygen along with other resources may have led to the deaths. Jagbir Singh, a resident of the village, said that all the patients had corona. Patients suffering from corona in Rohad and Ladhot villages are coming to PGI Rohtak for treatment. Apart from this, patients continue to come from another village named Baas in Hisar, where more than 30 corona cases have been detected.

One of the PGI doctors said on the condition of anonymity that there has been a spike in the death toll in the villages adjoining Rohtak and Bhiwani and also in some other districts. It came to light that 6-8 deaths were reported in Mundhal village of Bhiwani. A villager named Sawan Jaggal said that these were all corona-related deaths. Although, a few of the corona patients were also suffering from other diseases like high blood pressure, blood sugar and had other infections. 

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday again ruled out a complete lockdown, noting that the restrictions currently in place were more stringent than the lockdown conditions in many other states, and announced a series of relaxations and relief measures to alleviate the woes of various sections of the people amid the prolonged crisis.

Virtually chairing a cabinet meeting, the Chief Minister compared the Punjab restrictions with the curbs in place in states like Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala, among others, and pointed out that it was not necessary to impose a total lockdown.

The relaxations announced include phased opening of shops, and various incentives for the housing sector, including a three-month extension in the permission period of construction of plots/projects for allotments, whether private or allotted, by state urban development authorities.

Amid spiralling Covid cases, the Chief Minister ordered limiting the number of teachers in government schools to 50%, with the rest taking online classes from home. He also directed the Food Department to prepare 5 lakh additional food packets for distribution among Covid patients, to ensure that every patient individually gets a packet even where there is more than one patient in a family. The state government has also announced an additional 10 kg atta for 1.41 crore Smart Ration Card beneficiaries. The food aid is in addition to the 1 lakh food kits, containing 10 kg atta, 2 kg chana and 2 kg sugar, already sanctioned for all poor people testing positive with Covid-19. It is also additional to the food aid announced by the Government of India.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said that the state has been aiming to increase its oxygen generation capacity to 3,000 metric tonnes per day after the Central government warned about the Covid-19 third wave.

Thackeray, while addressing the state through a video conference said, “Central government’s scientific body has warned about the third wave of Covid. We are preparing for that since last month. Several districts are seeing a decline in Covid cases while some districts are seeing an increase in cases. We are keeping a close tab on it.”

The Maharashtra CM further said, “We have a demand of 1700 MT oxygen and 1200 MT is produced by us, rest 500 MT is provided to us by other states and sources with help of Centre.”

“We have to increase our oxygen generation capacity up to 3000 MT every day. We are making preparations for this under the ‘Mission Oxygen’ Program,” he said.

According to official data issued on Wednesday, Maharashtra reported 57,640 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours taking the cumulative cases to 48,80,542.

(With ANI inputs)

The Union Health Ministry on Wednesday informed that Covid-19 supplies received from the global community have been allocated effectively to the states and Union Territories including 1,764 oxygen concentrators, 1,760 oxygen cylinders, seven oxygen generation plants, 450 ventilators, over 1.35 lakh Remdesivir vials and 1.20 lakh favipiravir strips.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Government of India has been receiving international donations of Covid-19 relief medical supplies and equipment since 27 April from different countries including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Romania, Russia, UAE, USA, Taiwan, Kuwait, France, Thailand, Germany, Uzbekistan, Belgium, and Italy.

“All items received up to May 4 are allocated to the states and institutions and a substantial part of it stands delivered. This is an ongoing exercise,” the Ministry said.

A streamlined and systematic mechanism for allocation of the support supplies received by India has been put into place by the Central government for effective distribution of the medical and other relief and support material.

“A Standard Operating Procedure has been framed and implemented by the Health Ministry since May 2. A dedicated coordination cell has been created in the Health Ministry to coordinate the receipt and allocation of foreign Covid relief material as grants, aid and donations. This cell started functioning from April 26,” the ministry said.

All these relief medical supplies and equipment are being allocated by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in a timely manner to the 38 tertiary care institutions and 31 states, so far in the first tranche.

“This is done considering certain criteria like the number of active cases, case fatality rate, positivity rate, and need. This will help to supplement the medical infrastructure of these institutions and 31 states and UTs, and strengthen their clinical management capacities for prompt and effective clinical management of the hospitalised Covid-19 patients,” it said.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President JP Nadda, who is on a two-day visit to West Bengal to take stock of the post-poll violence, said on Wednesday that Mamata Banerjee has started her third term as chief minister with blood on her hands.

Briefing media persons, the BJP chief said, “The manner in which a massacre and brutal killings took place and the manner in which the acting chief minister stayed silent for 36 hours speak of her involvement. Mamata ji’s silence speaks about her involvement and she starts her third term with blood on her hands.”

“I condemn the brutal killings which have taken place after the results. We also stand by the people of Bengal and all citizens residing in Bengal with whom such incidents took place. This makes me remember the Partition days. I remember 16 August 1946, Direct Action Day. When I recall that day, I also recall incidents that took place post noon of May 2. We have to keep in mind that May 2 has become ‘khela hobe’ day. We have to remember what Mamata ji said in Nandigram and what happened here,” stated Nadda.

Nadda is on a two-day visit to West Bengal starting from Tuesday to hold a protest against the alleged atrocities on party workers in the state by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) government.