Coronavirus: Apollo Hospitals joins hands with Zomato, OYO and others to launch Project Stay I

Apollo Hospital on Monday announced via a virtual conference call the launch of Project Stay I, partnering with Zomato, Oyo, Biocon, Lemon Tree, Ginger Hotels, and other companies, to add 5,000 rooms for coronavirus patients to stay in isolation. The project is CSR funded by Hindustan Unilever Limited, SBI, and Deutsche Bank.

“These are telemedicine enabled medically supervised beds. Currently, we have started with 500 beds and will be adding 50 to 100 rooms every week. People can easily book for the rooms online and stay connected with the medical care practitioners,” said Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals.  Dr Reddy added that the Apollo Network will not be charging for its telemedicine services, and will charge only for the medicines at MRP. 

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Vikramjeet Singh, President, Lemon Tree Hotels stated that isolation is of key importance.

Ritesh Agarwal, Founder and Group CEO, OYO, added that while new infrastructure is needed, the exiting infrastructure can be used for isolation. “The 5,000 rooms can be made across economic, mid, and upper scale. OYO is working on the economy scale, and is looking to even open out its facilities for healthcare staff of doctors, nurses, first respondents, and paramedics, who are treating COVID-19 patients,” he said. 

Kiran Mazumdhar Shaw, Chairperson and Managing, Biocon, said, “We have a short window of opportunity to make success of lockdown, quarantine, and making sure we don’t get overwhelmed.” 

She added that the Project Stay I needs to be emulated by hotels and hospitals all across. “These hotels can be used for quarantined people, or those who are mild and asymptomatic. It helps in monitoring their health, so that they stay isolated, and when these start getting severe, they can be admitted at COVID-19 hospitals,” said Kiran. 

She also emphasised the need to expand the testing capacity. Lauding the efforts of the government, Kiran added that this is a true public and private partnership that is working to check the further spread of coronavirus. 

“On our end, we are looking at what can be done in terms of treatment options and also support the diagnostic centres,” said Kiran, adding that both public and private players are looking to streamline the testing and reduce the roadblocks. She added that Arvind Mills is working to manufacture protective gear.

Apollo Hospitals has partnered with Zomato to ensure that food is delivered to the isolation facilities. “We are ensuring that the food is not only safe to consume but also delivered in a contactless safe manner,” said Gaurav Gupta, COO, and Co-founder, Zomato. 

Apart from this Apollo is also setting up separate facilities for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, and is also working to skill medical staff, and is working on testing facilities as well.

(Edited by Evelyn Ratnakumar)