Covid 19: Reliable sources online for hospital beds, oxygen and meds

The second wave of the pandemic has taken the country by storm. There is a steady rise in the number of cases in almost every part of India. This rise is straining our medical infrastructure, which in turn is creating a shortage of resources including hospital beds, medicines, ventilators and plasma among other things.

Amid the present circumstance, the lack of a centralised information system has made it difficult for citizens to get the resources they need to help their ailing friends and family members. So, here we have compiled a list of the online resources that will enable you to help your near and dear ones through this difficult time. It is worth mentioning that while most of these resources are updated regularly, we haven’t verified each of them for authenticity. And so, we recommend that you approach them with a grain of salt.

Here are all the online resources that you need to check out:

Twitter

Amid the present times, Twitter has emerged as one of the most powerful tools to get the people to the resources that they need to tackle the Covid-19 crisis. Twitter offers an advanced search feature that lets users search for tweets containing specific keywords, phrases, hashtags, a specific language, geographic location and even a specific date. Here's our guide on using the micro-blogging platform for getting the help that you need.

CovidSoS

Covidsos.live is essentially a chatbot that claims to curate relevant posts with verified keywords from Twitter. On accessing for the first time, it gives users five options, which includes plasma, medicine, vaccination, ICU, oxygen and ventilators to pick from. Once you pick an option, it asks you your city to source relevant information for you. You can access it here.

Sprinklr

This website sources information from Twitter and categorises them into four options, which includes vaccines, hospital beds, Oxygen cylinders, plasma, medicines and ICU beds and ventilators. On the top, there is a menu bar for scrolling that lets users filter the search based on their location. Various sections on the website get updated every couple of hours. You can access it here.

Covid-19 Hospital Data

This website is aimed at helping users find information pertaining to hospitals treating Covid-19 patients. “This tool enables you to view the availability of beds, ventilators and other critical Covid infrastructure on a map so you can find one closest to you,” the website says. Users can find information such as the available beds, ventilators and contact number of the hospital by tapping on the locations marked on the map. That said, this tool is available only for users in Delhi and Bengaluru. You can access it here.

Cowin.gov.in

This website is operated by the Indian government. You can use this website to find the vaccine centre nearest to your location. You can also register for the vaccine on this website. All you need to do is scroll down on the homepage to Find Your Nearest Vaccination Center. In the dialogue box adjacent to it, tap on your current location option and you are good to go. Alternatively, you can pick your city on the map and tap on your pin-code in the screen that follows to get details about the vaccine centres nearest to your location. You can access it here.