Dimapur, May 23 (MExN): The ACT Grants has deployed a total of 60 Oxygen Concentrators (OCs) at various hospitals across Nagaland.
ACT Grants describes itself as a “social change movement for the startup ecosystem in India.”
According to the OC Deployment Dashboard on its website, out of 60 OCs deployed in Nagaland, 15 were supplied to District Hospital (DH), Dimapur while 10 each were deployed at the DH Tuensang, DH Mon and Dr Imkongliba Memorial District Hospital, Mokokchung.
In addition, five each were supplied to DH Longleng, DH Kiphire and Community Health Centre Noklak.
The Action COVID-19 Team (ACT) Grants started as a response to fight COVID-19 with the creation of a Rs 100 crore grant by India’s start-up community to “give wings to ideas that could combat the virus with immediate impact.”
It has expanded its mandate to cover “healthcare, education, environment, and women’s participation in workforce especially to get oxygen to those in need, fast.”
Presently, it is centrally distributing oxygen on behalf of the entire Indian startup ecosystem.
According to the delivery status as of May 20 on the Dashboard, ACT Grants has delivered a total of 16,544 OCs across India.
The OC Demand Dashboard also informed that Nagaland requires a total of 399 low flow OCs and 607 high flow OCs. The corresponding requirement across India was 2,45,867 and 2,95,561 respectively.
ACT Grants informed on its website that it is setting goal sourcing and distributing 50,000 OCs across the country to augment oxygen supply to hospitals as India battles the second wave of COVID-19. “These oxygen concentrators will be donated to various public health institutions and NGOs working for public health across India,” it informed.
However, the actual demand on the ground is far larger and we are also partnering with the government to support their efforts in this crisis, it said.
Demand for OCs from the frontline is being collected through a form hosted by MyGov.in for District Collectors (https://self4society.mygov.in/collector) and the Swasth Alliance for others. Various district magistrates, state governments and not-for-profit healthcare providers are required to fill in their requirements of oxygen concentrators in this form, it added.
It must be mentioned here that in January this year, with the assistance of ACT Grants, the Eleutheros Christian Society (ECS) donated 35,000 medical-grade masks to frontline workers to support health-care organisations and other essential workers in the ongoing battle against COVID-19 in Dimapur district.
In January 2021, the ECS collaborated with The Morung Express to identify health care facilities and institutions, government establishments as well as civil organisations and individuals and distribute the masks.
According to the ECS, the ACT Grants initially supported Tuensang and Mon districts by providing 15,000 and 10,000 N95 masks respectively. In addition, it also received 2,000 RT PCR kits for 2,000 reactions, 10,000 RNA extractor kits and 10,000 VTMs for the BSL II lab in Tuensang.
The ECS then informed that the ACT Grants decided to provide 2 lakh N95 masks for distribution among front line workers in Nagaland, at the cost of Re 1 per mask, which would have otherwise cost Rs 120 per mask at local market rates.
