Reliance calls for mass vaccination in India; plans to enable 1Cr shots in 100 days
Speaking at the 44th Annual General Meeting of RIL, Nita Ambani revealed that Reliance Foundation has set up 116 vaccination centres in 109 cities across India.
As India continues to fight the second COVID-19 wave, Reliance Industries Limited philanthropic arm, Reliance Foundation, is looking to provide one crore vaccine shots in 100 days as a part of its Mission Vaccine Suraksha.
Speaking at the 44th Annual General Meeting of RIL, Nita Ambani, Chairperson of Reliance Foundation, revealed that the foundation has set up 116 vaccination centres in 109 cities across India to speed up mass vaccination.
Stating COVID-19 vaccination as the most urgent need, Nita Ambani said, the foundation is looking to achieve the goal of vaccinating India through its vaccination mission — one of the largest corporate vaccination drives in India.
Image Credit: 44th Annual General Meeting of RIL
“Mass vaccination is India's top-most and urgent priority now. It is the most reliable way out of this crisis. And to achieve this, in the shortest possible time, the Government of India has recently allowed private enterprises and hospitals to join the effort,” Nita said.
She added that the entire vaccination process is made easily accessible through its digital platform JioHealthHub. “With a click of a button, you can book a slot or download CoWIN certificates,” she added.
Nita Ambani also revealed that the platform is available for free of cost to all users and has the capability to scale to one lakh shots a day, which translates into one crore in 100 days.
Reliance’s JioHealthHub — a part of Jio Platforms’ suite of online services — is a holistic e-diagnostic app, and is available for download on both Android and iOS.
Reliance Foundation is also looking to partner with public and private authorities to speed up this initiative.
The platform is already tested, and 20 lakh extended Reliance family, including retired personnel, partner company employees, and their families are vaccinated for free of cost.
Reliance’s fight against COVID-19
Reliance launched a total of five missions to fight the pandemic crisis. Besides Mission Vaccine Suraksha, it also launched Mission Oxygen, Mission COVID Infra, Mission Anna Seva, and Mission Employee Care.
“Traditionally, we have never produced medical grade liquid oxygen. Yet, when the need arose, we repurposed our Jamnagar refinery within days to produce high-purity medical grade liquid oxygen, and within two weeks, we ramped up production to a massive 1,100 metric tonnes per day, she said.
Adding, "Reliance is producing over 11 percent of India's medical-grade liquid oxygen — the highest by a single company at a single location. We are providing this Pran Vayu – oxygen – to one out of every 10 COVID patients in India and offering this service to the nation free of cost.”
Reliance also procured 100 new oxygen tankers from India and abroad. Under its Mission COVID Infra, the oil-to-telecom conglomerate set up over 2,000 beds COVID care facilities across India. It also launched a COVID-19 testing lab, with a capacity of 15,000 tests daily.
Besides, through its Reliance Mission Employee Care initiative, it is supporting the families of its employees who lost their lives to the pandemic. It will be paying the deceased employee’s salary to their family for the next five years and will also finance their children’s education till graduation. It will also ensure continuity of medical coverage for the family for life.
“Additionally, Rs 10 lakh will be provided to families of our off-roll employees who succumbed to COVID-19,” she added.
Last year, Reliance launched Mission Anna Seva to help feed the needy amid the pandemic. The company claims to have so far provided over 7.5 crore free meals to marginalised communities, daily-wage earners, and frontline workers across India. This mission now has also been expanded to provide food to cattle and stray animals.
Edited by Suman Singh