Help Support UNICEF’s Race to Increase Access to Oxygen & COVID-19 Testing in India

India is being hit by a rapid and deadly second wave in the coronavirus pandemic with the number of new cases per day reaching a shocking 273,810/day. Health and critical care facilities are becoming overwhelmed, leaving people without the medical care that they so urgently need.

Hospitals and health centers across the country are struggling under the tsunami of new cases, with hospital beds, essential drugs and oxygen running out, even in large towns and cities. Relatives are battling to find care or source oxygen cylinders to help treat loved ones at home.

Every year, 4.2 million children in low and middle-income countries urgently need medical oxygen to survive. This life-saving gas helps patients breathe when they cannot do so on their own – whether it be children with pneumonia or hypoxemia, newborns and mothers with birth complications, or patients with severe COVID-19.

UNICEF urgently needs your support to help save lives during this new deadly and devastating wave of COVID-19 infections in India, by boosting access to critical oxygen therapy & accurate testing through:
• Increasing local access to life-saving oxygen through the procurement of Oxygen Generation Plants, giving priority to treating severe/critical cases in hospitals
• Procuring additional RT-PCR machines to boost rapid, accurate testing - an essential tool in the fight against COVID-9

With your support, UNICEF will be able to mitigate the negative consequences of COVID-19. As the pandemic continues, UNICEF is working with partners to reimagine and develop a world that is a safer and more equitable place for communities and children everywhere.