HYDERABAD: Over the last few months, social media has emerged as a vital tool for many city residents to get their Covid-19 emergencies addressed through SOS alerts and the likes. But for many affected by Covid-19 in the rural areas, such platforms are still a luxury.
Acknowledging this gap, a few good samaritans from the city have launched fundraisers to provide assistance to people deprived of social media help. They aim to use these funds to ensure that rural areas have adequate medical facilities.
Speaking to Express, Pradeep Gadicherla, one of the founding members of Feed The Needy -- an NGO providing free last rite services to kin of Covid patients -- said that the virus spread is no longer restricted to just the big cities as in the first wave of the pandemic.”
The second wave has seen an increase in cases in the rural areas of the State as well. But, unfortunately, in these areas, things are only worse. There are fewer medical resources here in comparison to the cities,” he said. “In the new wave, we have seen many people, especially from the cities, reaching out for help on Twitter and other platforms. However, as not a lot of people have access to these platforms, their calls for help don’t get much much attention,” he added.
Gadicherla further said that there have been a few incidents in the past, wherein rural Covid patients had to travel all the way to Hyderabad to get medical facilities. “I know of a few Covid patients who lost the battle against the virus while they were en route Hyderabad for oxygen supply. We are, therefore, planning to start a fundraiser through which we can set up oxygen concentrators at the district level,” he said.