Responding to the COVID-19 crisis in India
India is experiencing a devastating surge of COVID-19, and we know that the Streamlabs community is looking for ways to help.
The situation in India is dire. Infection rates within India are the highest ever seen, with a record 360,927 new cases and 3,293 deaths recently occurring in a single day. Current rates are triple the 2020 former highest rates — while less than 2% of the population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Project HOPE has ramped up our global COVID-19 response to save lives and support health workers in India with urgently needed medical equipment and other support.
COVID-19 is surging worldwide, with more cases recorded in the past week than in the first five months of the pandemic, but nowhere has been hit harder than India.
Our Executive VP of programs, Chris Skopec, says “a race against time to save lives is underway in India. The brutality of this second COVID-19 wave is horrifying. International solidarity to help India cope with the soaring number of cases and deaths is critical.”
India has reported more than 17 million cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, but experts warn the actual number could be as much as 30 times higher. The second wave of COVID-19 has brought a dramatic increase in new cases of the disease since March. In the past month, there have been more than 5.4 million new cases across India.
Hospitals and ICUs are operating at or over capacity across the country. Lockdowns are being re-implemented, as positivity rates in cities like New Delhi are as high as 30%. New Delhi is one of the hardest-hit areas in India, with severe oxygen shortages and a lack of ICU beds and ventilators due to the massive caseload.
Tragically, India’s increasing deaths are expected to continue throughout May, due in part to a critical shortage of oxygen and lack of PPE that threatens to increase the outbreak further. Peak new daily cases are expected to reach 500,000 a day.
This crisis could also have devastating downstream effects on other countries. India is the world’s largest vaccine producer, with 92 countries depending on India for doses to protect their own people. Additionally, a new variant of COVID-19 is spreading inside India which has already been identified in 10 additional countries, including the U.S.
How Project HOPE is responding
In response to these urgent needs, Project HOPE is working directly with local partners on the ground in India to fight the COVID-19 crisis.
This includes:
- Providing overwhelmed hospitals with lifesaving medical equipment and supplies like PPE, oxygen supplies, ICU equipment, handwashing stations, ventilators and more.
- Training local front-line healthcare workers in India to respond rapidly and efficiently to COVID-19 in their work places and communities, while protecting their own health.
- Training health workers on vaccine science, the vaccination process and its importance on their communities.
- Building public awareness of COVID-19 prevention among the general public of India.
Project HOPE is also closely monitoring data on the COVID-19 case rates in neighboring countries in preparation to respond should similar outbreaks be detected.
How you can help
We urgently need your support to do this work. We know the power the Streamlabs community can have to quickly raise urgently needed funds and spread awareness of the COVID-19 crisis in India and around the world. We also understand how much you care and want to help.
Please join us by signing up to stream for Project HOPE to fight COVID-19 in India and ensure we can continue to support health workers and save lives globally. You’ll help provide PPE, medical supplies, training, vaccinations, mental health care support and more — and you’ll save lives and empower health workers who need us more than ever. Be sure to tag us on twitter using our handle @projectHOPEorg so we can thank you for your partnership!
