Oxfam responds to deadly COVID-19 wave in India

Spokespeople available for interview via Skype or phone

Oxfam India has deployed teams to five of the worst-hit states in India where a second wave of coronavirus is sweeping the country. The international organization is urgently appealing for $2 million to fund its emergency response to the crisis.

Teams have already started providing face masks, hand sanitizer, and other protective equipment in parts of Maharashtra following a request from state health authorities. Distribution of PPE to 500 frontline health workers will begin in Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in the coming days.

Oxfam India is procuring oxygen tanks, beds, digital thermometers, and other medical equipment to help government hospitals where supplies are desperately low. We are also preparing to provide food rations and cash support to stranded migrant workers and other marginalized groups, and handwashing stations in public spaces.

Pankaj Anand, Humanitarian and Programmes Director, said: “I do not know of a single family that has not seen at least one of its members infected. The surge in coronavirus cases has caught the country off guard. We are seeing hundreds of thousands of new cases every day and many more deaths. The health infrastructure in India is bursting at the seams [under huge pressure] and there are widespread reports of shortages of oxygen and other medical supplies in large cities.”

Amitabh Behar, CEO of Oxfam India, said:

"People are literally dying on the streets or in car parks or in their homes. There is no one I think in India who doesn’t know of friends or family or colleagues who have not had Covid. We are a country that is united in fearful expectation. Hospitals and health centers are begging for equipment and medicines and oxygen. The prices of medicines and oxygen have skyrocketed. This is a situation so bad, in my memory it is almost beyond my conception."

“Our immediate priority is to supply hospitals and health workers with medical equipment and PPE so they can continue treating those who are sick. But to avoid a worse humanitarian disaster it is vital we stop the spread and so we are also preparing handwashing stations and awareness campaigns to help people stay safe. We are particularly concerned about migrant workers and other marginalized groups who may be stranded in the open and will be hit hardest by lockdowns and the economic shock."

"Oxfam has been asked to source electric incinerators. We will provide what we can and what is urgently needed – but it is heart-breaking to begin to understand that equipment to cope with the dead is as scarce and needed now as equipment that would help the living."

Oxfam India is preparing to provide food rations and cash assistance to help the most vulnerable people to survive the coming weeks.

In the early months of the pandemic in 2020, Oxfam India provided hot-cooked meals to thousands of migrant workers stranded during lockdowns across the country. In the subsequent months and through the last year, Oxfam India provided dry rations and cash to some of the most vulnerable people across the country.

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