American pharmaceutical company Pfizer has partnered with the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Doctors For You to help create 400 oxygen beds at Delhi’s Yamuna Covid Care Centre by providing a grant of ₹4.50 crore, the company said in a release on Monday. It is to be noted that 10 per cent of these beds have been set up to specifically meet the requirements of Covid-19 paediatric patients.

“With a grant of ₹4.50 crore , from Pfizer, Doctors For You has procured and deployed 400 high-quality beds with oxygen support and other medically-necessary equipment including high quality ventilators, oxygen cylinders, oxygen concentrators, laboratory equipment, consumables and services of medical and paramedical staff services to maintain the operations at the facility. 10 per cent of these beds have been set up to specifically meet the requirements of Covid-19 paediatric patients,” Pfizer said.

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The Yamuna Covid care facility primarily caters to mild and moderate cases, majorly catering to the needs of lower income patients, migrant labourers, paediatric patients and others. Severe cases, if any, that need ICU support get referred to Government tertiary care hospitals with ICU facilities. Partly funded by the Delhi Government, the facility is being run jointly by the Delhi Government and NGO Doctors For You.

Besides this, Pfizer’s charitable arm, Pfizer Foundation, based in the US, donated ₹4 crore grant to AmeriCares to support a 30-bed ICU facility at the Bandra Kurla Complex Jumbo Covid Centre in Mumbai. With this support, the Foundation is helping mobilise critical equipment needed to make the ICU facility operational.

“These include more than 350 units of 40 different types of high-quality equipment such as ventilators, CNS monitors, patient monitors, syringe pumps and much more. The Foundation also provided a $500,000 grant to Direct Relief to fund the support, acquisition and distributions of critical medicines, medical supplies (including oxygen) and PPE.

It may be recalled that earlier this month, Pfizer had announced a donation of essential Covid medicines valued at over ₹510 crore. The first consignment of 2.2 million units of essential medicines valued at ₹50 crore has reached New Delhi and is being handed over to the Indian Red Cross Society by its NGO partner.

“The donation includes steroid medications to reduce inflammation, anticoagulants to help prevent blood clotting and antibiotics that treat secondary bacterial infections. These medicines have been identified as part of the Government of India’s Covid treatment protocol and will soon start arriving in India for use in Government hospitals across the country;” the release added.

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