Local healthcare workers donate, help with COVID-19 crisis in India

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) – Local healthcare workers are collecting medical supply donations to help those suffering in India.

India is averaging several thousand COVID-19 deaths a day, according to Johns Hopkins University.

“Only a few months ago Rhode Island had the highest per capita numbers of COVID in the entire world,” Dr. Laura Forman, who’s head of emergency medicine at Kent Hospital in Warwick.

So, Dr. Forman and her colleagues are now helping others by sending supplies like masks and gloves to India, which is now a hot spot.

“There aren’t enough supplies, people are dying for lack of oxygen, they’re dying for lack of medical supplies, and medication, and people are dying on floors, because there aren’t hospital beds there,” Forman said.

According to Forman, helping India also means helping to stop the variant ravaging that country from causing havoc in the U.S.

“The more COVID cases surge in other parts of the world, the more variants begin to spread. Those variants are going to come to the U.S., and we don’t know yet if our vaccine is going to protect us against them,” Forman said.

The shipments of donations are going out to India in a week or two. If you would like to help and donate, click here.