In the spring of 2021, the UN in India deployed its personnel and resources to help India respond to the devastating COVID-19 surge. We worked with the national and state governments to deliver critical supplies and public health interventions - procuring and delivering life-saving oxygen generators and plants, testing machines and personal protective equipment (PPE). Collectively, we delivered over 10,000 oxygen generators, over 70 oxygen plants and over 10 million pieces of PPE.
The surge coincided with an accelerating pace in India’s vaccination drive. The UN stepped up its support for India’s vaccination programme as it raced to outpace the climbing infection rate.
We operated under our pledge to leave no one behind, striving to reach the most vulnerable and marginalized communities through the surge.
Boosting Oxygen Supply
Hospitals across the nation struggled with the sharp rise in patients and a shortage of a resource critical for their care - oxygen. To meet oxygen demand for COVID patients with breathing distress, UN agencies moved to rapidly procure and distribute over 10,000 oxygen concentrators, devices that allow people suffering from oxygen deprivation to breathe, to healthcare facilities across India. Seventy-two oxygen generating plants were delivered or are currently being set up by the UN in India.
170 metric tons of World Health Organization (WHO) supported medical resources, including oxygen concentrators and tents for temporary health facilities, reached Delhi on 15 May. 27 truckloads of these were rushed to states and union territories from a warehouse in Haryana to support India’s COVID-19 response. Photo: WHO India
UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Health Specialist Dr Pravin Khobragade demonstrates an oxygen concentrator to healthcare workers at the Community Health Centre in Loni, UP, in May 2021. Photo: UNICEF India/2021/Srishti Bhardwaj
An Oxygen Generation Plant was installed at Tura Civil Hospital, Meghalaya by UN Development Programme (UNDP) with support from the Government of Japan in June 2021. As the second wave of the pandemic spread at an unprecedented pace, UNDP India partnered with the Government of Japan to provide oxygen generation plants to the North Eastern States of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura. Photo: UNDP India
A UNICEF officer inspects a newly installed Oxygen Generation Plant at Guru Govind Singh Government Hospital in Jamnagar, Gujarat, in May 2021. UNICEF delivered Oxygen Generating Plants to hospitals in Gujarat, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura. Photo: UNICEF/UN0470093/Rami
A COVID-19 patient breathes with the assistance of a WHO-provided oxygen concentrator in Oking Hospital and Research Clinic in Kohima, Nagaland. Nagaland state government received oxygen concentrators from WHO on 22 May 2021, and the very next day, these were in use by COVID-19 patients with breathing distress. Photo: WHO India
To support the COVID-19 surge response efforts in Rajasthan, UN Population Fund (UNFPA) delivered Oxygen Concentrators and PPE that was received by Raghu Sharma, Hon. Health Minister of the Government of Rajasthan. Photo: Raghu Sharma
Supporting Frontline Workers
Ashok and other volunteers worked tirelessly with local authorities in Tamil Nadu to increase awareness on how to protect the community by amplifying messages on COVID-appropriate behaviours, treatment and boosting vaccine confidence. UNICEF supports local authorities by training and deploying community-level volunteers like Ashok to support frontline workers. Photo: UNICEF/UN0467338
Serving on the frontlines, nurses have played a critical role in providing healthcare and protecting us since the beginning of the pandemic. To ensure their safety as cases surged, UNFPA conducted refresher trainings for healthcare workers on personal protection and the management of suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases. Photo: UNFPA/Arvind Jodha.
Salma Lari, an accredited social health worker, weighs a baby as part of her home visits providing pre- and post-natal health check-ups in New Delhi. UN Women has supported women healthcare workers like Salma from the start of the pandemic with COVID-19 prevention and safety protocols as well as critical health supplies, including 4,800 medical kits, 840 oximeters and PPE. Through its Second Chance Education programme, UN Women trained and certified 10,000 nurses and nurse assistants across 20 states to provide frontline health services safely during the pandemic. Additionally, UN Women supported the governments of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu to draft state-wide policy on women’s empowerment and safety and trained 1,500 front-line public officials in Punjab and Madhya Pradesh. Photo: UN Women/ Prashanth Vishwanathan
The UN Volunteer (UNV) District Youth Officer stationed at Nehru Yuva Kendra in Vizianagaram district (Andhra Pradesh) along with state partners founded a helpline that was technically manned by doctors from the Maharajah Institute of Medical Sciences and operated by volunteers from Centurion University. The team of 24 doctors worked tirelessly in 6 shifts providing free consultations and medical advice to under-privileged and vulnerable people who needed medical assistance during the surge lockdown. The helpline provided covered 959 Gram Panchayats, with a geographical coverage ranging across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha states. Photo: Centurion University
In the tribal villages of Odisha, where the surge placed enormous pressure on already strained health services, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) supported the Odisha PVTGs Empowerment and Livelihood Improvement Programme to create awareness on topics like social distancing and regular hand washing. Community-based organizations were also instrumental in supporting the district administration's door-to-door vaccination drive for people in hard-to-reach areas. Photo: IFAD India
Supporting the Vaccination Drive
Health worker Amrit Kaur uses her smartphone to track vaccine stocks at the Female District Hospital of Haridwar, Uttarakhand. Kaur is one of the vaccine and cold chain handlers who were trained by UNDP as part of the Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network, or the eVIN — a digital technology introduced by the Government of India to digitize vaccine stocks and monitor temperature of the cold chain. To support the COVID-19 vaccination drive, UNDP has trained over a million healthcare workers to use the Government's CoWIN (Winning over COVID) platform for the individualized tracking of COVID-19 vaccinations. Photo: UNDP India
German Ambassador to India, Walter J. Lindner (C) and UNICEF India Representative Dr Yasmin Ali Haque (R) inspect a COVID-19 vaccine cold storage space at MMG hospital in Ghaziabad, UP. UNICEF supplied the cold chain equipment with support from Germany as part of cold chain strengthening. To support the COVID-19 vaccination drive as well as routine vaccination for children in the long-term, UNICEF has procured and supplied 238,272 pieces of cold chain equipment to India, benefiting 310 million people. Photo: UNICEF India/2021/Prashanth Vishwanathan
Leaving No one Behind
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and local partner NGOs delivered life-saving food assistance to refugees as well as host communities to improve nutrition and to build resilience during the second wave of COVID-19. Photo: UNHCR/Daniel Ginsianmung
Adapting information, education and communication (IEC) materials developed for the first COVID-19 wave, World Food Programme (WFP) created a new video to build the capacity of national front line workers on the safe distribution of food which has received 15,000 views and has been shared multiple times by partner agencies. WFP also created a video on Gender and Protection during COVID-19 which received over 3.5K impressions. Photo: WFP India
Vandana Gupta, a community worker with SEWA, checking body temperature as part of COVID-19 safety protocols at a ration distribution centre in New Delhi. SEWA is a non-governmental organization that organizes and empowers women in the informal economy. UN Women worked with women’s and civil society organizations like SEWA to support women and their families through the COVID-19 surge. UN Women supported the Government of Delhi and women's groups to designate 100 Crisis Intervention Centres for children who had lost both parents to COVID-19. Photo: UN Women/ Prashanth Vishwanathan
India’s four million Safai Sathis (waste pickers) are India's hidden environmentalists, forming the backbone of the country's plastic waste management system. Yet the nature of their work means that these essential workers have been at higher risk during the pandemic, often working without protective equipment and exposed to medical waste. UNDP helped Safai Saathis access social protection systems, personal protective equipment and vaccinations throughout the surge. Photo: UNDP India/Raja Venkatapathy