The COVID-19 pandemic is particularly bad in India at the end of April, 2021. Several massive manufacturers, including Hero MotoCorp and Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India, already announced plans to close temporarily and redirect some of their liquid oxygen stores to hospitals that need it for patients. Now, both Hero and HMSI are among several Indian firms working with local governments to build temporary hospitals.
The city of Gurugram, located in the northern state of Haryana, is about 19 miles southwest of India’s national capital, New Delhi. On April 29, 2021, it recorded a pandemic-high 5,042 new cases for the first time, which is nearly 1,000 more cases than in Mumbai for the same time period. Additionally, the daily positivity rate in the city was recorded at an alarming 41 percent.
The city is a hotspot at the moment, but several local companies including Hero MotoCorp and Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India are working to build temporary hospitals to help patients. Additionally, they’re supplying much-needed personal protective equipment and oxygen canisters, as well as helping out in other concrete ways.
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“Hero Motocorp has started to build a temporary hospital of 100 beds, which is expected to be ready in the next one week or 10 days,” Gurugram deputy commissioner Yash Garg told News18.
“Similarly, a 100-bed temporary hospital will be arranged in Gurugram on behalf of the PSA office of the government. In the newly constructed vacant flat of M3M group in Sector 65, a 100-bed make shift temporary hospital is being arranged," he continued.
All the temporary hospitals being built by companies not normally in the healthcare field will be connected with Gurugram’s existing major hospitals, so doctors and experienced medical staff will be providing all necessary care to patients.
“Power Finance Corporation Limited has also assured to set up a makeshift hospital under CSR [corporate social responsibility] program. Honda Motor Cycle & Scooter India Private Limited will also build a temporary hospital of 100 beds. Minda Group will also set up a temporary hospital and oxygen plant,” Garg continued. He also listed a number of other businesses that are also constructing temporary hospitals with around 100 beds each.
“In these temporary hospitals, patients and paramedical staff will be required to provide treatment to the patients, for which the district administration has already registered itself with volunteer doctors, retired doctors and paramedical staff willing to provide services. The proceedings have been started for getting it done,” Garg said.
Just one day before, on April 28, Hero MotoCorp also announced that it was providing motorcycles and scooters as personal commuting vehicles for healthcare workers throughout multiple Indian states. These include Delhi, the national capital region, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, and Gujarat.
Sources: News18, Hero Motocorp, Times of India