Covid Response Team, a Civil Society Initiative to Strengthen the Fight Against Covid-19

A coordinated response is a must to defeat Covid-19. With this as the basic premise, Covid Response Team is a civil society effort of various stakeholders to strengthen the fight against the virus.

Lt. Gn. (Retd.) Gurmeet Singh, Convener, CRT, said, “Despite the commendable efforts of the Central and state governments, it is proving to be a herculean task to contain the crisis. There is a need for providing coordinated relief on various fronts by civil society.”

CRT has been providing food to the Covid affected families regularly. 28000 families are provided food every day.

Nine isolation centres have been started under the initiative with a total bed capacity of 500. The initiative has also launched mobile Oxygen homes under the name Oxygen on Wheels. Seven such mobile vans, with a capacity of six beds each, have been positioned outside various hospitals.

The current wave of Covid has taken a very heavy toll on the mental health of the people. CRT will be launching a programme ‘Positivity Unlimited’ from May 11-14 under which prominent speakers will interact with the masses about general awareness and spiritual matters.

It has started a dedicated helpline centre which has received more than 90000 calls so far. The centre is dedicated to helping people with guidance about the availability of Oxygen cylinders, hospital beds and medicines.

Industries bodies like FICCI, CII, ASSOCHAM etc; professional bodies like ICAI, ICWA, ICSI etc; spiritual organisations like Patanjali Yogpeeth, Isha Foundation, Art of Living etc; social organisations like Sewa Bharti, Lions Club, VHP, SJM etc; and private citizens like Ambassador Bhaswati Mukherjee, former Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi, IAS officers M L Meena & Narender Kumar, are all associated with CRT.