The Crisis in India
Elsevier is partnering with other RELX businesses to support our colleagues and their families in India
As Shankar Kaul, Managing Director Health Science India, sat speaking to me via Zoom in the lounge of his home in Delhi late last Friday night, he was visibly weighed down. A second wave of Covid-19 infections is sweeping across India, impacting friends, colleagues, family and neighbours, and the situation is continuing to worsen.
Shankar explained to me how the second wave took hold, beginning in the first week of March.
“Cases started in the Western side of India in Maharashtra, where the state capital of Mumbai is located,” he explained. “Here we started to see a concentration of the new strain resulting in a higher number of cases. This rapidly took hold of states in the North (Punjab, Delhi NCR, Haryana) and has progressively enveloped the whole country. Healthcare infrastructure has been stretched beyond capacity. Acute shortage of hospital beds, oxygen, essential medicines, physicians and nurses has created a humanitarian crisis. The Government is working round the clock with organisations drawn from both the public and private sector to support hundreds of thousands of people impacted.”
In the last two weeks the country has seen the severity of this deadly virus in full force with over 20m cases now recorded since the pandemic began and a peak of 400,000 new cases reported in one day. Shankar continued, “It started with the more transmissible UK strain in Maharashtra and Punjab, it has evolved into an Indian double mutant strain or B.1.617 and now we understand there is a triple mutant Bengal strain.’
These strains are highly transmissible, air borne and have affected young people in equal measure, this has compounded the crisis. Shankar explained: “Young people are the most economically active members of society, two thirds of Indians are of working age between 15 and 59 years old. We are now seeing an increasing number of states effecting temporary lockdowns and the Government has opened up vaccinations for all citizens aged 18 years and above from 1 May."
"The general impression is that the number of young people dying after contraction is on a par with the older generations and this is what has created so much widespread concern."
Shankur Kaul and Sarah Meurer during their call
Shankur Kaul and Sarah Meurer during their call
Supporting each other
Image courtesy of Swasth
Image courtesy of Swasth
Image courtesy of Swasth
Image courtesy of Swasth
The Elsevier team partnering with other RELX businesses in India has joined the effort to support our colleagues and families. Shankar talked about the initiatives currently underway, saying “We have set up a Covid Crisis Management Team and a Covid Volunteer Support Group to assist our employees. This Support Group consists of an amazing group of more than 50 volunteers from across the RELX businesses and regions.”
This effort has enabled the team to focus on providing verified information in three key areas: availability of essential medicines; hospital beds; and oxygen. It also means that the team can pass on validated information to affected colleagues quickly so they can seek immediate help.”
Shankar also elaborated on how the team was drawing on the broader research community, saying: "We have enlisted the support of our Elsevier author network, predominantly drawn from specialities of infectious diseases as well as pulmonologists to be able to provide us Government-validated guidelines and protocols.”
Most recently, the team has created subgroups and support groups from the original volunteer group, assigned to different regions and cities. Shankar continued: “With the approval of the families impacted, we have passed on their information so they can reach out to individuals to provide help. This ensured our employees have quick access to ambulances, hospital beds, oxygen, medicine and for those who are marooned in rural suburbs and villages, essential food supplies.” Ganesh Venkatesan, MD Chennai Operations, adds that the conditions in Chennai and adjoining southern states of the country, like Karnataka and Kerala are worsening as well. With teams from almost all areas of Elsevier represented in Chennai – Operations, Technology, Journals, Health, Research Solution Sales (RSS), Legal etc, this cross-functional volunteer support group has worked tirelessly to support the impacted team members and their families.
Shankar talked to me about a colleague from one of the Sales teams: “We were informed by their manager that a colleague was suffering from high fever and it was felt needed urgent hospitalisation. The support group immediately scanned for information relevant to their area in relation to hospital and bed availability and we were able to provide that information in quick time. At the same time, Dr Arun Khemariya, content strategist and a trained clinician, was able to call and advise our colleague on treatment regimen. Ultimately they did not require hospitalisation thanks to the quick work of the team. We are getting news that they are making a full recovery. This is one example of the kind of effort underway by our support groups.”
Despite these moments of success, the pandemic is continuing to take its toll, and Shankar tells me that the teams have lost friends, families and colleagues. He said: “In some cases it's happened so fast we were not able to help. We are all heart broken and our thoughts are with their families. We continue to do all we can for those in need and beyond.”
Supporting 12,000 patients with access to oxygen
Supporting 12,000 patients with access to oxygen
It has been widely reported around the globe that many hospitals in India have run out of the oxygen needed to treat severely ill patients.
Shankar told me how Elsevier and RELX became involved in supplying oxygen concentrators to support the national effort.
The office of CEO Ajay Nair of Swasth contacted my colleague Hema Jagota, Director Clinical Solutions, India to enlist our support in this effort to procure and deploy 50,000 oxygen concentrators across the country. Elsevier and RELX were able to make a donation that contributed to that goal, providing approximately 22 high-flow oxygen concentrators, supporting more than 12,000 patients with serious illness.
That was possible because Elsevier is a trusted partner of Swasth, an organisation that promotes universal and affordable healthcare for the people of India. Last year Elsevier became a content partner to Swasth, providing verified information and forging an ongoing association with the project. Swasth is an alliance of non-profit bodies but also large hospital chains, large Indian Information Technology companies and is one of three principle partners to the National Health Authority which forms the backbone of the National Digital Health Mission. The national app, called the Swasth App, will soon interface with the digital health resources created in India through partnerships such as the one with Elsevier.
Shankar elaborated on the effort, saying: “Swasth is the principle partner of the Government effort, they have validated information about institutions across the country where the need is greatest for oxygen concentrators so they can quickly deploy those procured. They also have a very strong supply chain delivery arm and have enlisted the local ecommerce companies to ensure they get to where they are most needed. “I have never been prouder to work for Elsevier, RELX and with Swasth, which has really understood we have clear purpose to support national efforts to drive access, affordability, and build standards of heath care in India, especially at this time.”
Other ways Elsevier is supporting customers, colleagues and communities
Image courtesy of Swasth
Image courtesy of Swasth
To help combat the wave of misinformation about the virus and to support customers, Elsevier has launched the India Covid-19 Healthcare Hub, a new Covid-19 Hub specifically developed for India. The website includes short synoptic clinical overviews, medication information and easy-to-understand videos and instructions for patients.
To support individual customer outreach an email template has been developed to inform customers and personal contacts in India about this new resource and to let them know Elsevier is here to help through this difficult time.
In addition, Elsevier has developed several videos to address some of the biggest questions people have about the vaccine. These videos will be shared through Elsevier's social media channels and you can find the videos on YouTube.
For our people, Elsevier is also stepping up employee support by enhancing the home medical insurance for colleagues and their families in India. The HR team in India has worked with the current healthcare insurance provider on an enhancement to the existing coverage to take-up additional healthcare insurance to cover home medical and quarantine support, as hospital-based treatment is inaccessible. All RELX businesses have agreed to support the insurance and this is in the process of being rolled out as we speak.
We can all help by continuing to support teams to prioritise their health and the wellbeing of their loved ones by holding off on any non-urgent requests or meetings.
For our communities, those wishing to make donations to support the effort on the ground can also donate to PM Cares, a fund that is aimed at strengthening the Indian Government’s fight against Covid.
We would like to thank Shankar Kaul and Ganesh Venkatesan for sharing their stories. Our thoughts are with all our colleagues in India.
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