US pharma major Pfizer said on Monday that it was helping to create around 400 oxygen-supported beds in Delhi and equipping a 30-bed ICU facility in Mumbai.
Besides this, the company is sponsoring essential Covid medicines valued at Rs 510 crore for government hospitals in India.
Pfizer has partnered Doctors For You, a non-governmental organisation, to help create oxygen bed capacity at Delhi’s Yamuna Covid Care Centre with a grant of around Rs 4.5 crore. Doctors For You has procured and deployed 400 beds with oxygen support and other medically necessary equipment including ventilators, oxygen cylinders, oxygen concentrators, laboratory equipment, consumables and services of medical and paramedical staff to maintain operations at the facility with the help of the Pfizer grant.
Around 10 per cent of these beds have been set up to meet the requirements of Covid-19 paediatric patients.
The Yamuna Covid care facility primarily caters to mild and moderate cases, more broadly meeting the needs of lower-income patients, migrant labourers, paediatric patients, and others. Partly funded by the Delhi government, the facility is being run jointly by the Delhi government and Doctors For You.
“In addition to the aid provided by Pfizer India, the Pfizer Foundation, based in the US, donated $500,000 (Rs 4 crore) grant to AmeriCares to support a 30-Bed ICU facility at the Bandra Kurla Complex Jumbo COVID Centre in Mumbai. With this support, the Foundation is helping mobilise critical equipment needed to make the ICU facility operational,” a statement here said. These include more than 350 units of 40 different types of high-quality equipment such as ventilators, CNS monitors, patient monitors, and syringe pumps. The foundation also provided a $500,000 grant to fund the support, acquisition and distributions of critical medicines, medical supplies (including oxygen) and PPE.
The Pfizer Foundation is a charitable organisation established by Pfizer Inc. It is a separate legal entity from Pfizer Inc.
Earlier this month Pfizer Inc announced donating essential Covid medicines worth over Rs 510 crore for India. Of this, the first consignment of 2.2 million units (valued at Rs 50 crore) has reached New Delhi. It is being handed over to the Indian Red Cross Society by Pfizer’s NGO partner.
The donation includes steroid medications to reduce inflammation, anticoagulants to help prevent blood clotting, and antibiotics that treat secondary bacterial infections.
“Our Covid-19 relief efforts have been focused on supporting public health workers, governments authorities and our partners so that patients have access to the treatment they need,” said S Sridhar, managing director, Pfizer Ltd. Rajat Jain, president, Doctors For You, said with the support of Pfizer, they had transformed the Yamuna Sports Complex into a make-shift hospital that comprised 800 oxygen-supported beds.
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