Notices about the deficiency of COVISHIELD, a coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India, will be seen on April 20, 2021 outside a COVID-19 vaccination center in Mumbai, India.
Indian lawyer Jeevika Shiv, after fruitless hours calling the government’s helpline in a hospital bed for a critically ill COVID-19 patient, posted an SOS request on Twitter.
“Serious # covid19 patient in #Delhi with oxygen level 62 needs immediate hospital bed,” Shiv, part of a 350-member COVID-19 volunteer medical support group, said on Twitter late last week.
Help came quickly. The patient was given a bed and recovered quickly.
“Ultimately, it was online help that worked while people responded with information,” Shiv said.
India reports more than 250,000 new COVID-19 cases per day in its worst phase of the pandemic. Hospitals turn patients away and oxygen and medicine become scarce.
In response, people are bypassing the conventional communication lines and turning to Twitter to gather help for oxygen cylinders, hospital beds and other requirements.
People in need and people with information or resources share phone numbers of volunteers, providers who have oxygen cylinders or drugs, and details on what medical facilities patients can use with hashtags like #COVIDSOS.
Some users have offered to help homemade meals for COVID patients quarantine at home and to provide for a host of other needs, such as caring for pets.
“Twitter must do what the auxiliary numbers of the government must do,” wrote Twitter user Karanbir Singh.
“We are on our own people.”
Twitter is not as widely used in India as Facebook or WhatsApp, but it is a more valuable tool for pleading for help in the coronavirus crisis, mainly due to its “re-tweet” feature that sends a message can be quickly enhanced by users. contact networks.
A Google Spreadsheet set up by a group of volunteers who gather information about hospital beds, oxygen supplies, blood plasma and ambulance helplines in various states is quickly shared on Twitter and amounts to dozens of pages.
Software developer Umang Galaiya (25) in Bengaluru has created a website that allows users to choose the name of the city and the requirement – whether it’s oxygen or the antiviral remedy – and then post them on results. Twitter directs using its pre-search feature.
His website received more than 110,000 hits.
“Every other tweet on my feed was about COVID,” Galaiya said.
“I’m glad people find it useful.”
But for some, help comes too late.
Journalist Sweta Dash on Monday posted a plea for help on Twitter to find bed in a ventilator for a pregnant woman in New Delhi. Her message quickly spread through more than 100 retweets and an official in Delhi soon suggested a hospital.
But a few hours later, Dash posted another message.
“The patient has died.”
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