India’s battle against COVID-19 continues

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Affairs reported 4,01,078 fresh COVID-19 cases on Saturday. The overwhelming numbers being recorded daily is bringing India’s healthcare system to the brink of collapse, with severe scarcity of hospital beds, medicines, and oxygen.

Swasth Digital Health Foundation, along with ACT Grants and 150 organisations forming the Swasth Alliance, is aiming to procure 50,000 Oxygen Concentrators (OCs) and other medical supplies to aid the fight against COVID-19. 

The alliance has deployed 2764 OCs as of May 6. It also confirmed the supply of a total of 35,000 concentrators.

In the meantime, an anti-COVID oral drug called 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) — developed by the DRDO — has been approved by the  Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for emergency use as an adjunct therapy in moderate to severe coronavirus patients.

The clinical trials of the drug showed that it helps in the faster recovery of hospitalised patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence.

Meanwhile, the health ministry also said the requirement of a positive COVID-19 test report was not mandatory for admission to a health facility.

Read about how the Indian startup ecosystem is battling the second wave of COVID-19 here.

Here are some useful tools and links that can help you find the nearest vaccine centres in real-time.

The Interview

With the elderly being a high-risk group for COVID-19, eldercare startup Emoha began to closely evaluate how they could step in to help senior citizens cope and prevent the spread of the disease. Saumyajit Roy, Co-founder and CEO, Emoha Elder Care, talks about the opportunity in the Indian eldercare market and reimagining healthcare in the times of COVID-19.

Editor’s Pick: Startups fight COVID-19: Lokal Kitchen

When the pandemic hit, food delivery was the only option to tuck into something different. However, anxiety regarding hygiene and safety has always been there with restaurant food. Home chefs, on the other hand, are regarded as more reliable.

Rohit Gawli and his childhood friend Rohit Mhatre noticed a rise in demand for home-cooked food and decided to launch Lokal Kitchen out of Mumbai in January this year. The platform caters to the delivery of home-cooked meals by home chefs. Read more.

Startup Spotlight

A Bengaluru startup conducting team engagement activities for corporates

Understanding the role of team dynamics and its impact on performance, serial entrepreneur Vipul Kasera realised high-performance teams invariably shared great rapport and cohesion within them. However, he felt most teams across organisations in the modern age didn’t put in concerted efforts to build social capital. 

Believing the space for team engagement was ripe for disruption and innovation, Vipul launched Team Activators in Bengaluru in 2018 and set out to bring structure and maturity to team engagement activities. Read more.

News & Updates

• India received 2,060 oxygen concentrators, 30,000 vials of Remdesivir, 467 ventilators, and three oxygen generation plants from US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), Switzerland, Poland, the Netherlands, and Israel, the government said.

• The Civil Aviation Ministry has permitted the Telangana government to use drones for experimental delivery of vaccines using beyond the visual line of sight drone flights.

• The Income Tax Department has issued a notification, allowing hospitals and nursing homes to accept cash payments of Rs 2 lakh and more for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

• Marketing companies of Remdesivir, used in the treatment of COVID-19 patients, will supply 53 lakh vials of the antiviral drug to the states/UTs for the period between April 21 and May 16, the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers said.

• Nithin Kamath, Co-founder and CEO, Zerodha, said that the fintech unicorn would refrain from having work-related conversations post 6 pm. “At Zerodha, we have just killed all work-related chats post 6 pm and holidays,” he tweeted.

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

"Ultimately, the greatest lesson that COVID-19 can teach humanity is that we are all in this together."

— Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson, Biocon

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