The Herald has joined forces with World Vision to support India in its fight against the Covid-19 outbreak. We're bringing you stories from the front line and the opportunity to help – every story has a click-through button so you can donate direct to World Vision and help provide desperately needed supplies of oxygen, beds, medical supplies and food.
Herald readers have raised an astonishing $489,062 for World Vision's Covid-19 India Appeal to support families devastated by the disease - and the money is getting through.
Donations are going towards desperately needed supplies of oxygen, beds, medical supplies and food in India, where daily new cases continue to number about 300,000 and the official death tally is around 4000 a day. Experts believe both figures are an undercount.
Families devastated by Covid-19 need you. Please click here to donate now at worldvision.org.nz and save lives
The money raised by New Zealanders has so far helped secure 1000 oxygen concentrators, PPE, hospital beds and other urgent medical supplies, said Franklin Jones, World Vision's head of humanitarian affairs for India.
He said oxygen concentrators were more popular than cylinders with both doctors and patients due to their infinite provision of oxygen.
"Oxygen cylinders are tanks, and have a finite amount of oxygen compressed within them and inhaled by the user until it runs out. They then have to be refilled or replaced, which is extremely difficult to do when there is a shortage of oxygen.
"Oxygen concentrators work like air conditioners, filtering and generating a constant and infinite supply of medical grade oxygen from the air. They require power to run, however hospitals and health centres are not short of power to supply them."
Jones thanked New Zealanders for "your incredibly generous donations" in India's time of need.
"The support of New Zealanders and many others across the world, has enabled us to begin to support hospitals and health care centres across the country.
"We are getting life-saving medical supplies to these facilities."
Support from Kiwis was also helping World Vision educate at-risk rural communities about hygiene practices to stop Covid from spreading, and provide food and hygiene kits to families affected by the virus.
Grant Bayldon, World Vision's national director for New Zealand, said that the international support was helping to aid "life-saving work" in the country.
"While it might not be headline news anymore, the Covid-19 crisis in India is continuing at pace, impacting hundreds of thousands of people every single day," Bayldon said.
"Our colleagues on the ground are telling us that the devastating impact the pandemic is having on India's most vulnerable is becoming more apparent by the day.
"In India we have staff positioned across the country and we are doing all that we can to fight Covid-19. Thanks to your help, we are able to respond and save lives."
Despite the ongoing devastation in India, there are signs of hope. In the last week, the number of new cases fell by nearly 70 per cent in Mumbai, India's financial capital and home to 22 million people. After a peak of 11,000 daily cases, the city is now seeing fewer than 2,000 a day.
A well-enforced lockdown and vigilant authorities are being credited for Mumbai's burgeoning success. Even the capital of New Delhi is seeing faint signs of improvement as infections slacken after weeks of tragedy and desperation playing out in overcrowded hospitals and crematoriums and on the streets.
With over 24 million confirmed cases and 270,000 deaths, India's caseload is the second highest after the US. Experts believe that the country's steeply rising curve may finally be flattening — even if the plateau is a high one, with an average of 340,000 confirmed daily cases last week. On Monday (local time), reported infections continued to decline as cases dipped below 300,000 for the first time in weeks.
But it is still too early to say things are improving, with Mumbai and New Delhi representing only a sliver of the overall situation. With active cases over 3.6 million, hospitals are still swamped by patients.
Families devastated by Covid-19 need you. Please click here to donate now at worldvision.org.nz and save lives
Your support will help save lives by providing protection, prevention, and urgent life-saving healthcare.
· Oxygen
· Hospital beds
· Medical supplies
· Other desperately needed essentials
- additional reporting: AP