Photo: Adnan Abidi | Reuters, File Photo
In India, "FROM local cyclists delivering groceries to the elderly to autorickshaws distributing oxygen to patients, grassroots volunteer `groups` have been cropping up across India to help tackle the new wave of the coronavirus," reports Thomson Reuters Foundation News. Amid shortages of ambulances, hospital beds, medicines and oxygen supplies this month due to the coronavirus surge, Vasanthakumar Chandran and 10 friends in Chennai began piling oxygen cylinders in autorickshaws and showing up at desperate patients' homes. The temporary stop-gap measure has become a critical service. "We are going to homes, parking outside crowded hospital gates and giving patients the much needed oxygen support for a few hours to stabilize them," Chandran said. In other parts of the country, a group of cyclists called Relief Riders deliver groceries, medicines and meals to the elderly and families in quarantine. The effort quickly expanded across eight cities, including Mumbai and Bengaluru. "We figured that shortages will ease if we can help people stay indoors and stay safe," the effort's organizer, Sathya Sankaran, explained.
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