More global corporates vow India help to fight virus

San Francisco: As the COVID19 crisis deepening in India, many multi-national companies and corporate giants pledged their support in the ongoing oxygen shortage faced in the country. Smartphone makers OPPO and Vivo are the latest to announce their support to fight the COVID surge in India.

While Vivo India announced a donation of Rs 2 crore, OPPO India pledged to donate 1,000 oxygenators and 500 breathing machines worth Rs 4.3 crore to the Indian Red Cross Society and the Uttar Pradesh government to help in the fight against Covid.

The smartphone maker is also donating 5,000 units of OPPO Band Style worth Rs 1.5 crore to front-line warriors of the Delhi Police and Greater Noida Authority to help them monitor their health as they serve others.

Last year, Vivo had donated over 9 lakh masks, 15,000 PPE suits and 50,000 litres of sanitiser to the state and central government agencies to help fight the pandemic.

Apart from OPPO and Vivo, Chinese smartphone maker, Xiaomi also had announced a donation of Rs 3 crore to procure more than 1,000 oxygen concentrators for hospitals across states. The company has also partnered with non-profit organisation GiveIndia to raise Rs 1 crore for the Covid-19 warriors.

Meanwhile, E-commerce major Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft have also joined the effort to help India to fight the devastating second wave of Covid-19.

Amazon on Tuesday announced that it has procured 100 ventilators and will import these to India. The company has tied up with Medtronic, an American-Irish medical device company, to deliver the units to India in the next two weeks.

The e-commerce giant is also working closely with the Health Ministry's appointed agencies to finalise the hospitals for end-to-end delivery, installation, maintenance and training of personnel who will use these machines.

The company had, meanwhile on Sunday, announced to donate 10,000 oxygen concentrators and BiPAP machines to hospitals and public institutions to augment their capacity to help Covid-19 infected patients across multiple cities in India. The first of these consignments were set to land in Mumbai on Sunday and a majority of the shipping is expected to be completed by April 30.

Additionally, Amazon also joined hands with ACT Grants, Temasek Foundation, Pune Platform for Covid-19 Response (PPCR) and other partners to urgently airlift over 8,000 oxygen concentrators and 500 BiPAP machines from Singapore.

Earlier Apple CEO Tim Cook had extended its support to India saying that "Our thoughts are with the medical workers, our Apple family and everyone there who is fighting through this awful stage of the pandemic. Apple will be donating to support and relief efforts on the ground," Cook said in a tweet.

This came soon after corporate giants Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced to help Covid-ravaged India.

Google had announced Rs 135 crore ($18 million) to help get urgent medical supplies, including oxygen and testing equipment. The donation includes two grants from Google.org, Google's philanthropic arm, totalling Rs 20 crore

India is going through its most difficult moment in the pandemic thus far.

Daily Covid-19 cases continue to set record highs, with hospitals filled to capacity and in need of urgent supplies to cope with the increasing number of patients