Kolkata, April 26: With COVID-19 second wave creating an unprecedented situation, people from various walks of life in West Bengal ranging from students to celebrities, teachers to media professionals and myriad other spheres are sharing on the social media updates of beds available in hospitals, availability of oxygen cylinders and plasma donors.
Over 1000 youths have already joined the ‘Covid-19 Helpdesk’ started by Presidency University Students Council, a network on Facebook to share updates on matters like hospital beds and oxygen cylinders for corona patients in their homes requiring immediate treatment.
Presidency Students Council member Debnil Paul said on Monday that the network is providing updated verified information and has asked its members to share as much details as possible in order to help people in this hour of crisis. “We the students of Presidency University, Kolkata have come up with the initiative to provide up-to-date and verified information on availability of resources necessary to fight COVID-19, focussing on availability of hospital beds, oxygen cylinder, ambulance, plasma banks/donors, medicine, food, quarantine centres, safe homes and more,” the council said in a statement.
One post on Monday inquired about the availability of hospital bed for a 31-year old COVID-19 positive person who has high temperature. The Council informed the person about a private hospital in New Town besides the telemedicine numbers of the state government.
Other posts provide information on availability of medical oxygen cylinders in different pockets of south Kolkata and Hooghly district with prompt feedback giving verified details of individuals, social organisations and medical facilities having life-saving drugs in stock. Food for the affected is not forgotten.
Two posts in the network give details about home delivery of food in certain south Kolkata localities for the quarantined families infected by the virus.
Among the celebrities who have joined in to help the victims of the pandemic is national award winning film director Srijit Mukherji, who shared a number of posts to help the affected people. Srijit shared posts about availability of oxygen cylinder in Hooghly district and Kolkata, besides in cities like Indore, Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Delhi. He also shared details about COVID-19 medicine supplier in the city, list of nurses for coronavirus patients, toll free number of the distributor for the all important Remdesivir for patients with acute respiratory problem.
Actor Parambrata Chatterjee retweeted on his microblogging account Srijit’s post on availability of oxygen. The actor-director also shared a tweet by popular singer-composer Anupam Roy about availability of doctors to treat corona patients and oxygen supply in Kolkata. (PTI)
