Page 14 - Annual Report

The once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic due to The Tata Trusts’ relief programme ‘One Against
Covid-19 started in late December 2019 and spread Covid’ was perhaps the most comprehensive
worldwide in a span of 2 months. The first cases in response in corporate India to this extraordinary
India came to light during February 2020 and the crisis that was unfolding. As the lockdown was
alarming ability of the novel coronavirus to spread announced, the Trusts responded immediately,
infections jolted the Indian government to committing `5 billion towards Covid relief initiatives.
impose one of the most stringent lockdowns, on With the pandemic putting stress on the country’s
March 25, 2020. health ecosystem and the shortage of equipment
As the country closed down, the millions of needed to fight an infectious outbreak, it was
daily-wage migrants that move the wheels of the imperative that relief measures address these and
Indian economy were left with little option but to other critical lacunae.
return to their hometowns, far away from the The Trusts’ programme to address Covid was spread
bustling metros that had become their home, across five themes:
sometimes along with their families. This resulted in (1) Procurement of Personnel Protection
an exodus of humanity that the nation had perhaps Equipment (PPE) for frontline medical personnel
last witnessed during the Partition. With the and Covid testing kits.
To address the acute shortage of these items during
the initial days of the pandemic, the Trusts procured
and dispatched over 680,000 kits (comprising items
such as sterile and non-sterile gloves, N95 and KN95
masks and surgical 3-layer masks) to hospitals and
non-profit organisations, benefitting personnel
across 30 states. Materials were sourced from
FDA-approved suppliers in China. The Tata
ecosystem stepped up to support the effort: while
Tata International provided import and customs
expertise, Voltas provided 100,000 square feet of
warehouse space in Pune, and Trent Ltd. oversaw
warehouse management.
(2) Setting up and augmenting existing medical
infrastructure
The Trusts’ efforts focused on identifying existing
medical infrastructure and modifying it into Covid
Hospitals or medically- equipped Quarantine
Centres. The Isolation Centres were conceived as
facilities with 50 to 100 beds each, equipped with
railroads and highways shut down and the police medical furniture and patient-care equipment
force enforcing the lockdown, these hapless, (including beds, crash carts, transport ventilators,
wretched individuals had to resort to walking the monitors, BiPAP machines, syringe and infusion
long way home. Many fell prey to unscrupulous pumps), along with diagnostic equipment such as
transporters that charged an arm and a leg to take X-ray, Ultrasound, ECG machines and
them close to their destinations.
triage/screening areas. The Comprehensive Covid
Parallelly, the virus that was first largely restricted to Facilities included ICU beds with advanced critical
major cities, spread across the country and care equipment, such as ventilators, Continuous
infections began to rise from April. With testing kits Cardiac Monitors, video laryngoscopes, intubation
and Personnel Protection Kits in short supply, it was carts, BiPAP machines, dialysis machines, IA balloon
challenging to detect affected individuals (almost pumps, ABG machines, DVT pumps, syringe and
75% of whom would be asymptomatic, but highly infusion pumps, etc.
contagious), and, given the lack of any established During the year, 2 such Covid facilities in
treatment protocol, the medical fraternity and Maharashtra (Sangli and Buldhana) and
frontline healthcare personnel were initially
unaware and unprepared as to how to proceed.

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