THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Parliamentarians with Innovators for India (PIIndia), a national Covid-19 response and action group co-founded by Anil K Antony has set up a 30-bed fully equipped recovery centre at the Panchakarma Ayurveda Institute at Poojapura. The initiative which is headed by Shashi Tharoor, MP, has been completed with the collaboration of a design team from the Anant National University, Gujarat led by Dr Miniya Chatterjee. The centre, which has been handed over to the district authorities, will start functioning on Friday. The project has been co-funded by Cisco and Samhita Ventures.
Earlier, the PIIndia team and Anant National University had set up a 20-bed Covid-19 First Line Treatment Centre (CFLTC) at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram. The team involved has totally set up five more such facilities, a 75-bed centre in Rajkot; among others. Anil told TNIE that a total of 725 beds across seven centres have been handed over to the authorities so far. He exuded confidence that the new facility at Poojappura will definitely be a massive boost to the state’s defence in the fight against Covid-19.
“Despite diverse fields of work, different political affiliations - it is apt and important that we all came together keeping public interest and national interest in mind, as a concerted effort would be the most effective way in containing the pandemic,” said Anil, who is also national coordinator, PIIndia. The PIIndia has over a dozen MPs in its team, alongside organisations and institutions who all wanted to seek and utilise innovation as a tool to fight Covid-19.