Warnings about the shortage of vaccine against COVISHIELD, a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, are seen outside a COVID-19 vaccination center in Mumbai, India, on 20 April 2021. REUTERS / Francis Mascarenhas
After spending hours unsuccessfully calling government helplines to find a hospital bed for a critically ill COVID-19 patient, Indian lawyer Jeevika Shiv posted an SOS request on Twitter.
“A serious patient from # covid19 to #Delhi with oxygen level 62 needs an immediate hospital bed,” said Shiv, a member of a 350-member COVID-19 voluntary medical support group. he said on Twitter late last week.
Help came quickly. The patient found a bed and soon showed signs of recovery.
“Ultimately, it was online help that worked while people responded with information,” Shiv said.
India reports more than 250,000 new cases of COVID-19 a day in its worst phase of the pandemic. Hospitals are pushing patients away and supplies of oxygen and drugs are running out.
In response, people overlook conventional lines of communication and turn to Twitter for collective help from oxygen cylinders, hospital beds, and other requirements.
People who need it and those who have information or resources share phone numbers of volunteers, providers who have oxygen cylinders or medications, and details of what medical facility can accommodate patients who use tags like #COVIDSOS.
Some users have offered to help homemade meals for patients with COVID make quarantine at home and meet other needs, such as arranging to feed pets.
“Twitter has to do what government helpline numbers should do,” Twitter user Karanbir Singh wrote.
“We are on our own.”
Twitter is not used as much in India as Facebook or WhatsApp, but it is proving to be a more valuable tool for getting help requests in the coronavirus crisis, mainly due to its “re-tweet” function. which can quickly amplify a message through users. networks of contacts.
A Google spreadsheet compiled by a group of volunteers that collects information on hospital beds, oxygen supplies, blood plasma and ambulance helplines in various states is quickly being shared on Twitter and reaches dozens of pages.
Bengaluru-based software developer Umang Galaiya, 25, has created a website that allows users to select the city name and requirement (either oxygen or the antiviral drug remdesivir) and then directs them to Twitter results using its advanced search feature. .
His website has received over 110,000 visits.
“All the other tweets in my feed have been about COVID,” Galaiya said.
“I’m glad people find this useful.”
But for some, help comes too late.
On Monday, journalist Sweta Dash posted a request for help on Twitter to find the bed with a fan for a pregnant woman in New Delhi. His message quickly spread through more than 100 retweets and a Delhi government official soon suggested a hospital.
But a few hours later, Dash posted another message.
“The patient died.”
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