ICICI Lombard General Insurance, one of India's leading non-life insurance companies, has introduced a unique CSR program to curtail the spread of Covid-19 pandemic. Harnessing its experience and relationships in the healthcare space, it has partnered with Apollo Health & Lifestyle Ltd., subsidiary of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd. and Metropolis Healthcare Ltd. to curtail Covid-19 infections among India's underprivileged populace. As part of the exercise, it will fund the entire screening procedure, including the testing kits required for examining probable cases infected with Covid-19. It has committed a sum of ? 5 crore for the initiative that will benefit the underprivileged section of the society.
A Covid-19 test currently costs ? 4,500, which includes cost of testing kit, sample collection from home, diagnosis, generating test results etc. As such, the initiative will benefit over 11,000 underprivileged citizens, who show symptoms of the virus and hence need to be tested on priority. Further, if testing kits costs come down, the initiative will benefit an even larger section of this community. The exercise will cover Antyodaya Ration card and BPL Ration card holders.
Bhargav Dasgupta, MD & CEO, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, said "In these challenging times, the underprivileged section of the society is highly vulnerable to Covid-19 pandemic. Their timely screening is the first step to curtail the spread of the virus. Being a leading health insurer, we thought of harnessing our relationships with healthcare service providers. We believe that our partnership with Apollo Health & Lifestyle and Metropolis Healthcare should add to the Government efforts towards expanding the Covid-19 screening infrastructure for India's masses."
Ms. Sangita Reddy, Managing Director, Apollo Health & Lifestyle Ltd. said: "We commend this initiative by ICICI Lombard to partner with other members in the healthcare ecosystem. Early screening of probable Covid-19 can make all the difference to our efforts in curtailing this pandemic. At Apollo Health & Lifestyle, we are geared up to this initiative that will truly benefit India's underprivileged populace."
Ms. Ameera Shah, Managing Director, Metropolis Healthcare Ltd. said: "We are happy to partner with ICICI Lombard for this very important cause. The underprivileged section of the society needs to be screened for any Covid-19 infection, in time, to prevent further outbreak. We will initiate the screening activity in Maharashtra. Further, we will expand the reach of this initiative to other states in the coming days."
ICICI Lombard, Apollo Health & Lifestyle and Metropolis Healthcare will work towards creating awareness about the initiative among the beneficiaries through their various mass reach platforms. The endeavour should significantly contribute to the government's efforts towards curtailing the spread of the virus among the masses.
