Covid Heroes: Few Good Men Who Stood Up For The Challenge

As India is going through the heartbreaking scenes of desperation, few individuals went out of their way to mitigate the devastation unleashed by the Covid-19 resurgence.
Notably, these individuals pooled their human resources to provide free medicines, arranging ICU beds, oxygen cylinders and even transporting patients to hospitals.IANS caught up with these individuals in the worst-hit cities of Delhi and Mumbai to know the ground reality of the Covid resurgence.

One such individual, east Delhi-based businessman Varun Tyagi, 39, not only helped Covid patients secure medicines but on many occasions gave away medicines free of cost to needy individuals. Accordingly, IANS verified some of the past incidents of Tyagi's generosity and tracked him in east Delhi." From my business network, I am fully aware of the availability of medicine in the market. I'm volunteering purely out of concern for human life," he told IANS.

"People call me to help them secure medicines like Remdesivir, Fabiflu, oxygen, and diabetic and hypertension medicine which are short in supply. I do not accept any payment for any medicine which my associates or I provide. God has been kind enough to me and I feel this is the right way to serve him."A similar story of generosity and social service has emerged from communication specialist Amit Khanna, 45, who helps people create medical care at home. People reach out to him by word of mouth.

"As a volunteer, I have seen severe cases and it's a purely personal experience in managing Covid at home since hospitals have run out of bed. I usually help people create medical care at home settings with essential medicines and other important things like oxygen, inhalers under the guidance of family doctors or the doctor's patients are consulting, I totally discourage self-medication," Khanna said.

"I haven't spent anything but have diverted Covid essentials from people who got cured to more needy people in my network – this has been a key success in my approach towards helping people."Besides, Rahul Sanghavi, 43, a Trustee in Veer Foundation has taken it upon himself and his organization to provide free-of-cost oxygen cylinders across Mumbai.

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"Currently, we have 55 centers across Mumbai city through which we are providing free medical oxygen cylinders," Sanghavi said."At the start of the pandemic, we had initiated centers for the supply of free sanitization equipment to the societies and sanitized more than 55,000 societies, hospitals, public transport, ambulance."

Apart from individuals, India Inc is also playing a pivotal role in helping augment medical supplies. Especially, the Tata Group, Linde, ITC, SpiceJet, IndianOil, BPCL, and many others are playing their part in helping the country emerge out of this devastating Covid resurgence. In fact, Indian Railways, defense forces as well as NGOs are aiding the fight to save lives. (IANS/JC)