In the devastating COVID wave in India, the pressure on hospitals is not easing. Oxygen supply remains critically low across the country. There are almost no beds in intensive care units and there is a shortage of medicines. A major problem is also the lack of diagnostic facilities.
bioRe® India works in the districts of Khargone and Barwani in the central Indian region of Madhya Pradesh. This region is one of the most affected in the whole country, as it borders the state of Maharashtra, which has the highest number of COVID patients and deaths in India. For this reason, the entire Madhya Pradesh region has been in a complete lockdown situation for the past month.
Some members of the bioRe team fell heavily ill with COVID. Several bioRe farmers succumbed to the disease. Among them was the president of the bioRe® Association India, Madanlal Khandelwal, one of the oldest bioRe farmers, who had been growing organic cotton with heart and conviction for over 25 years.
Oxygen concentrators arrived in bioRe India
With the call for donations on 3 May 2021, the bioRe® Foundation has launched an emergency relief campaign to support the bioRe cotton community as well as the entire workforce of bioRe® Association and bioRe® India Ltd and their families in the current crisis situation. At this point, bioRe Foundation has already organised 15 oxygen concentrators as the most urgent relief for the COVID patients with respiratory problems in the region.
On 18 May, the oxygen concentrators reached the bioRe centre in India. The concentrators are going to be loaned to needy patients in the region by the management team of the “COVID cell Programme”. Four oxygen concentrators were delivered to the government hospitals Kasrawad and Maheshwar.
«COVID cell Programm»: Help through targeted activities
The “COVID cell Programme” is an emergency programme of the Mobile Health Unit (MHU) that provides additional services in the current crisis situation to respond to the regional problem and help the population with targeted activities.
Raising awareness
Most of the rural population is not well informed about COVID issues.
- Awareness-raising activities for each bioRe village and farming family are carried out with the help of various bioRe staff such as animation school teachers or agricultural extension workers.
Medication and supplies
In the region, many people infected with COVID cannot afford medical care due to poverty.
- Eleven oxygen units are available for COVID patients with respiratory distress.
- So-called “COVID kits” are given to sick people. They contain medicines prescribed by the doctor for 5 days (paracetamol, antiviral tablets and antibiotics as well as vitamin C). Also included are a disinfectant bottle and 4 masks.
- Due to the lockdown situation, public transport is completely suspended. A school bus is provided for emergency transport of patients to the district hospital.
Diagnostic equipment
No diagnostic tests are offered in Kasrawad. People would have to travel to other places for this. The cost of these diagnostic tests is too high for the needy people.
- MHU offers free diagnostic services.
- A protein analyser for various COVID-related tests will be purchased.
- The goal is to cover 2,000 COVID-related tests. We have already been able to fund half of these.
- Thanks to the available X-ray machine, more than 100 COVID patients have already received free X-rays.
The health bus will provide emergency coverage for the “COVID cell programme” in three different locations: Kasrawad, Maheshwar and Pipalgaon, so that more people in need can be reached.