Author: City Today News (City today.media)

– Policy launched in collaboration with Reliance General Insurance
– In case of testing positive for Coronavirus, 100% sum insured to be given
– Completely online & hassle-free process with zero manual documentation

Bengaluru, 12^th April 2020: India’s leading digital payments & financial services platform Paytm (owned by One97 Communications Limited) today announced the launch of COVID-19 Benefit Insurance Policy in collaboration with Reliance General Insurance, which provides the widest possible coverage. This insurance plan offers a best-in-class sum assured a maximum of Rs. 2 lakhs.

The COVID-19 Protection insurance is a much needed product in the market. From covering against positive diagnosis, 14-day quarantine, loss of pay/job, it also offers a waiver to the 45 days Travel exclusion policy as add-ons. It aims at reducing the financial implications one might occur due to the pandemic.

The policy provides 100% sum-insured in lumpsum on being tested positive for the virus and the patient does not need to wait for the entire treatment to get completed to receive the financial help. The policy covers individuals between the ages of 3 months to 60 years, with a wide range of sum-insured options ranging from Rs. 25,000 to Rs 2 lakhs.

The entire process of purchasing the policy is quite hassle-free and the users do not require extensive or any manual documentation. The policy can be bought by following a few simple steps on the Paytm app.

Paytm COVID-19 Insurance covering all eventualities
100% of Sum Insured given incase of Covid-19 positive case Quarantine Cover, Loss of Job, Loss of Pay, Travel Exclusion Cover as Addons with additional

Premium Age eligibility: 3 months to 60 years, 100% digital claims process

Amit Nayyar, President- Paytm said, “In these unprecedented times, everyone needs to take extra precautions to safeguard personal, their family as well as community’s health. With our COVID-19 Benefit Insurance Policy, we aim to provide simple health insurance coverage that will take care of most expenses that a Coronavirus patient might have to incur. The digital policy can be purchased on the Paytm app and is generated online within a few minutes from the safe confines of one’s home.”

Commenting on this development, Rakesh Jain, ED & CEO, Reliance General Insurance said, “Looking at the current scenario, COVID-19 Protection Insurance is a much-needed product in the market. During these trying times, RGI believes its duty to ensure mass coverage for India to combat this large-scale crisis. Our digital partnership with Paytm to ensure access to its millions of users across the length and breadth of the country is one of the ways we are removing the barriers to COVID-19 diagnoses and treatment.”

The COVID-19 Benefit Insurance Policy has a validity period of one year and there are multiple plans that can one opted depending on one’s need. The waiting period is for 15 days before one can claim against the policy.

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Sets Aside Massive Ad Space to Promote Aarogya Setu 

April 11, 2020: ShareChat, Indian social media platform, announced Saturday the setting aside of INR 50 million in ad-credits on its platform for an extensive outreach campaign of the Aarogya Setu app. 

Aarogya Setu is a mobile application developed by the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with an objective to offer information and proactively reach out to and inform users of the app regarding risks, best practices and relevant advisories pertaining to the containment of COVID-19.

Over the next few days, ShareChat will extensively promote the Aaragya Setu application across its 60+ million active users in 15 different languages and help surface details about the app to users of the platform. 

This latest effort is in addition to the various initiatives that have been undertaken in the past few weeks which include ensuring that verified information surfaces to the top of our trending feed, priority fact checking of COVID-19 related content in over 13 languages and the promotion of content by various law enforcement and government accounts on the platform. 

Berges Y Malu, Director – Public Policy, ShareChat said, “As an Indian start-up, we are proud to be a part of this important outreach campaign for the Aarogya Setu app. We commend the effort by the Prime Minister towards rapidly building a platform that offers information regarding symptoms, best practices and relevant advisories pertaining to the containment of COVID-19. We hope this initiative would help increase the adoption of the app.”

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6,000 best tech minds come together to innovate against Coronavirus crisis in India
Bengaluru youth unites against Covid-19!
More than 530 youngsters from the city participating

● As many as 90% of the participants in the hackathon are below 25 years of age
● The event is organized by Motwani Jadeja Family Foundation (MJF) founded by well-known entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist, Ms Asha Jadeja Motwani
● The largest contingent of participants is from Bengaluru (533), followed by Hyderabad (374), Chennai (293), Delhi (283), Kolkata (208) and Mumbai (226)
● More than 100 mentors are helping participants sharpen their product ideas and convert them to successful real-world products
● Prize money worth US$ 34,000 is on offer

April 11, 2020 – The much-anticipated CODE19 online hackathon has begun with 6,000 of the best and brightest innovators and developers from India and abroad competing individually or in teams from the comfort of their homes to create open-source solutions against the Coronavirus crisis facing the nation.

The 72-hour event, hosted by the Silicon-Valley-based Motwani Jadeja Family Foundation, will conclude on April 13, 2020 at 9 pm. Total prize money of $34,000 is up for grabs for winners who will be announced on April 21, 2020.

The youth of Bengaluru has united against Covid-19, with 533 youngsters from the city contesting in the national hackathon to invent solutions to combat the pandemic in India. Bengaluru in fact accounts for the largest number of participants from a single city, followed by Hyderabad (374), Chennai (293), Delhi (283), Kolkata (208) and Mumbai (226).

Said well-known entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist and change agent Ms Asha Jadeja Motwani, who is the Founder of Motwani Jadeja Family Foundation: “CODE19 is an attempt to create a concerned community of hackers, mentors, domain experts, and socially-conscious citizens to enable India’s fight against Covid19. We have been completely overwhelmed by the response from thousands of people, especially the youth, from all corners of the country towards this hackathon. Their enthusiasm is palpable.”

She added: “The participants have a strong desire to collaborate on a war-footing to develop tech solutions to effectively mitigate the threat of Covid 19 for India. These open source ideas and innovations would be available for scaling and implementation across the country to help the society cope with the pandemic and its aftermath, especially the poor and vulnerable sections of society.”

Out of the total number of participants, one-fourth are females. The hackathon has an overwhelming presence of youth too. About 90% of the participants are below 25 years of age. Almost 70% percent of the participants fall in the 20-25 age group, while 20% are in the 15-19 age group.

As many as 82 participants from overseas are also presenting their solutions. These include 30 from the US; 16 from Bangladesh; 4 from Germany; 3 from UAE and Egypt each; 2 each from Ghana, Indonesia, Italy, New Zealand, and Poland. Participants from Canada, China, Colombia, France, Guatemala, Iran, Israel, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, UK, Vietnam and Zambia are also contesting.

An impressive 1,142 innovative ideas have been submitted by the participants across six themes related to meeting the Coronavirus crisis:  Open innovation for Coronavirus (481); Social Life, Welfare and Awareness (246); Healthcare & Medication (172); Education and Awareness (92); Research & Development (104); and Travel / Tourism and Industry (47).

More than 100 mentors are helping participants sharpen their product ideas and convert them to successful real-world products that will aid the fight against Coronavirus. Registrations for mentors will remain open till April 12, 2020.

The outcome of CODE19 would be qualitative, open-source prototypes to help tackle various challenges facing India during or after the COVID19 crisis. A total prize money of $34,000 is on offer for the winning solutions, including $10,000 for the First Prize and $5,000 for the Second. The Third Prize is divided into three categories, each of which will be awarded $3,000. In addition, 10 best innovative solutions will be awarded $1,000 each.

The panel of judges to decide the winners includes names such as Gaurav Aggarwal, Co-Founder, 1mg.com; Manish Amin, Co-Founder, Yatra.com; Praveen Nahar, Director, National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad); Vishal Gondal, Founder, GOQii; Vaibhav Aggarwal, Founder, Fabhotels.com; Amit Ranjan, Co-Founder, SlideShare; and Jitender Minhas, CEO, IAMAI Startup Foundation,

CODE19 is being organized in collaboration with partners such as HackerEarth, TIE Mumbai, IAMAI Startup Foundation, Mumbai Angels Network, Association of Designers of India, Stumagz and GirlScript. The event has three leading academic institutions as partners – National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad), IIT Kharagpur and Centre for Entrepreneurship – Ashoka University.

For more information about CODE19, please visit: www.code19.in

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Dr Krishnakumar Rathnam is Senior Consultant & Head, Dept of Medical Oncology, Meenakshi Misson Hospital and Research Centre.

Burden of Covid -19 infection globally and in India

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2, is a novel corona virus first detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and has infected lakhs of people causing deaths in thousands across 186 countries including India. In India as the clock is ticking, the number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 infection in India is certainly increasing. As last statistics recorded during writing of this article the total number of Covid-19 cases in India has reached 1637, including 1466 active cases, while 133 people have been cured/discharged.

Who are more susceptible to COVID-19?

Elderly people, people with comorbid conditions like diabetes, preexisting lung disease, renal and cardiac failure are more susceptible to this infection. Apart from the above-mentioned group, patients with poor immunity, namely those on various medications like steroids and immunosuppressive drugs and patients with cancer are more susceptible to the COVID-19 compared to normal population.

Effect of COVID-19 on cancer patients

As per the Report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on COVID-19, cancer patients (especially elderly, very young patients, patients with diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and chronic respiratory illnesses) had an estimated 2-fold increased risk of COVID-19 than the general population. Early published reports from China on outcomes of cancer patients infected with COVID-19 indicated a 3.5 times higher risk of needing mechanical ventilation or ICU admission or dying compared with patients without cancer. Over and above, they become a potential source of infection to all their contacts and care givers; emphasizing the need for thorough education of COVID prevention to all cancer caregivers.

Preparedness by the oncology team – “Prevention better than cure”

Suggestions and guidelines have been drafted by various oncology societies across the globe from USA, Europe, China and in India also. “PREVENTION OF INFECTION” is the first step in any health care. The starting point to infection and environmental control of COVID 19 is triage of patients with respiratory symptoms so as to reduce exposure to other patients. Use of screening questionnaire for the detection of suspected coronavirus cases, masking of individuals at all entry points of the system, symptom screening of all patients, visitors and staff before entering the hospital is very crucial. Any symptomatic patients will be referred to the government health department for next level evaluation and COVID-19 testing and isolation if indicated. As Oncologists we are more attentive to detect coronavirus infection early, as any type of advanced cancer is at much higher risk of unfavourable outcomes.

Use the telephone and use telemedicine technology if available

We generally ensure that every cancer patient spends more time at home and less time out in the community. A telephonic appointment system and reinforcement of a strict “stay at home when ill” policy is key in preventing community spread of COVID-19. As oncologists we also communicate to our patients the right information regarding practice modifications during COVID-19 outbreaks.

COTINUUM OF CANCER CARE FOR NEW AND EXISITING CANCER PATIENTS

The general thumb rules

Cancer patients can continue their treatment unless they are in close contact with someone with COVID-19 or presenting with symptoms of cough, shortness of breath, breathing difficulties or high temperature.

Cancer surgery and radiotherapy during the pandemic

Elective cancer surgeries can be rescheduled after weighing specific risks of the delay. Oncologists would decide to postpone or modify radiation therapy depending on the clinical situation. Emergency radiotherapy, however will be delivered by most oncologists with all precaution.

Cancer chemotherapy and COVID-19 pandemic

With lock down and paucity in transport facility, all measures to minimize risk of chemotherapy toxicity should be taken. This is done to make sure the cancer patient is not stranded at his home town sick, unattended and unable to reach us on time. Less toxic chemotherapy regimens with lesser hospital visits and oral chemotherapy regimens may minimize exposure of both patient and the caregiver to COVID-19 sources. Certain planned chemo schedules may be delayed, however patients requiring chemotherapy for day to day control of disease may continue their therapy under strict monitoring and adherence to COVID-19 prevention strategy. Planned allogeneic stem cell transplantation can be reasonably delayed particularly in a situation where the disease control can be achieved with alternate treatment methods. Patients can continue to take palliative care at their own place under guidance of telemedicine consultation. It is important that each patient understands that every decision to modify treatment is taken keeping in mind risk/benefit to the cancer patient who is a highly susceptible person to COVID-19.

Cancer screening and Follow up visits

All asymptomatic people are advised to postpone their planned cancer screening procedures and asymptomatic patients who have completed cancer treatment to postpone follow up visits till COVID-19 epidemic settles. However, these patients must be educated to contact health care providers in case of contact history or if having symptoms of COVID-19.

General measures to prevent COVID-19 spread among cancer patients

Cancer patients requiring hospitalization need to be protected from potential sources of COVID-19 infection. Institutions handling large volume in-patient cancer patients, pediatric cancer patients, leukemia patients on treatment, bone marrow transplant patients and hematology patients on immunosuppressive therapy should preferably isolate these patients from potential and proven COVID 19 patients. In such centres, COVID-19 patients be admitted in separate blocks well away from these high-risk groups. Patients, the treating team and patient care givers should be educated about appropriate preventive measures about social distancing practices and maintaining hygiene and how to break COVID-19 transmission. Home quarantine and government policies of “staying home” is to be respected and strictly adhered to, understanding the fact that government is acting in support of community health at large and it is our social responsibility as citizens of India.

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