Ecommerce major Amazon is working with sellers on its marketplace in India to help them procure about 9,000 oxygen concentrators in the country.
The first batch of 1,000 oxygen concentrators have already landed in India and are now available for purchase for consumers and business customers. The rest are expected to come through in the second half of the month.
Sellers on Amazon will now be offering oxygen concentrators along with other genuine and high-quality products like oximeters, thermometers, masks, gloves, sanitisers, and disinfectants for customers across India, Amazon India said in a blog post.
“To address the growing customer demand and shortage of critical medical equipment, Amazon India is working with sellers on its marketplace to help them bring in about 9,000 oxygen concentrators for customers in India,” it said.
Amazon’s global procurement teams are helping interested sellers from India connect with global suppliers to enable them to procure oxygen concentrators while simplifying supply chain complexities and facilitating the overall process, it noted.
“In the last few weeks, we have seen up to a 70x increase in search volume for oxygen concentrators, and we are collaborating with our sellers to ramp up the inventory of critical medical equipment, including oxygen concentrators for our customers. Our focus is to enable easy and convenient access to genuine, high-quality products for our customers in their time of need,” Amazon India Vice President Manish Tiwary said.
India is registering a high number of COVID cases daily that has put extreme pressure on the healthcare infrastructure of the country.
The massive rise in infections in the second wave of the pandemic has led hospitals in several states to reel under a shortage of medical oxygen and beds, leading people to turn to social media to procure oxygen cylinders, hospital beds, plasma donors, and other resources.
Previously, Amazon had announced importing and donating 100 ventilator units. It had also announced bringing in over 10,000 oxygen concentrators and BiPAP machines to India in collaboration with multiple partners. The medical equipment will be donated to hospitals and public institutions to augment their capacity to help COVID-19 infected patients across multiple cities.
