Hindustan Unilever Limited has donated 34 ventilators worth ₹4 crore to the Maharashtra government. This includes ventilators worth ₹1.5 crore donated to the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) and ₹1 crore worth ventilators to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). The rest have been sent to civil hospitals in Chiplun (Ratnagiri) and Nashik, where the company has its factories.
These will help in ramping up the medical infrastructure in the state. Earlier, the company had donated 29 ventilators worth ₹3 crore to government hospitals in the state.
Sanjiv Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director, HUL, said in a press statement, “Over the last few months, India has seen a severe shortage of critical care equipment at various hospitals. We need to come together in these challenging times and pool our resources to fight the Coronavirus. We are hopeful that this donation will provide urgent help to the hospitals as they treat patients suffering from Covid-19.”
Earlier this month, HUL announced that they had airlifted over 5,000 oxygen concentrators to India through their partnership with KVN Foundation and Portea, India’s largest home healthcare company. This partnership has successfully provided access to medical oxygen for Covid-19 patients directly in their homes, thereby reducing the pressure on healthcare infrastructure.