Boeing to set up field hospitals in India

The aerospace major has been in talks with five state governments to provide such facilities in their jurisdictions, reports Rohit Vaid.

Aerospace major Boeing has tied-up with state governments along with NGOs to set up field hospitals in India to treat Covid patients.

Accordingly, the aerospace major has been in talks with five state governments to provide such facilities in their jurisdictions.

In the last few days, Boeing India has reached out to UP, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu state governments.

The initiative as part of Boeing’s India Covid relief commitment envisages setting up of such facilities in each of five states which are facing the pandemic resurgence.

As part of the programme, the funding, land and utilities, facility, equipment, doctors as well as medicines will be provided through a partnership model by the joint effort of Boeing, the concerned state government and NGO partners, ‘Doctors for You’ and ‘Care USA’.

The state governments will provide the infrastructure and utilities while ‘Doctors for You’ will provide the medical infrastructure and staff.

The first such facility is expected to come as soon as possible.

“We are in conversations with local and international relief organisations to deploy Boeing’s $10-million emergency assistance package to support India’s Covid-19 response,” said Salil Gupte, president, Boeing India.

“As part of that effort, we’re working with medical, government and public health experts across India to provide relief, including medical supplies and emergency health care to communities most impacted.”

Last month, Boeing announced a $10 million emergency assistance package to support India’s Covid-19 response.

At present, Boeing has 3,000 employees in India.

The company develops, manufactures and services commercial airplanes, defence products for customers in domestic civil and military sectors.

Lately, India has been heavily battered by record new daily increases in coronavirus infections, prompting lockdowns and restrictive measures.

The exponential rise in new coronavirus cases in India has been termed as a humanitarian crisis.

IndiGo inoculates all op staff

Airline major IndiGo is set to become the first domestic airline with an all inoculated operational staff.

Accordingly, the airline in anticipation of rising travel demand on the back of accelerated vaccination programme has initiated the internal inoculation drive.

Besides, the company wants to restore confidence in not just the travelling public but also in operational crew members, front office and ground handling staff.

Recently, Centre allowed for a liberalised vaccination phase under which private entities can procure vaccines at market regulated prices.

These jabs can then be administered under medical supervision to the company’s staff.

According to IndiGo’s Chief HR Officer Raj Raghavan: “We are fully committed towards the vaccination of our entire workforce, including our subsidiary Agile, as soon as possible.”

“As of today vaccination drives have already commenced aggressively across 35 stations and we are in the process of including more stations.”

Presently, the airline has around 23,000 employees, including employees belonging to its subsidiary Agile, all of whom, it plans to inoculate

Furthermore, the company is also providing time off to crew members upon vaccination as per guidelines.

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