#covidsos: indian twitter becomes a platform of hope amid despair

_Indians use social media as their helpline to seek scarce oxygen cylinders, hospital beds and medicines as virus continues to surge._ After spending hours fruitlessly calling government

helplines in a search for a hospital bed for a critically ill COVID-19 patient, Indian lawyer Jeevika Shiv posted an SOS request on Twitter. “Serious #covid19 patient in #Delhi with oxygen

level 62 needs immediate hospital bed,” Shiv, part of a 350-member COVID-19 volunteer Medical Support Group, said on Twitter late last week. Help came quickly. The patient found a bed and

was soon showing signs of recovery. “Finally, it was help online that worked as people responded with information,” Shiv said. India is reporting more than 250,000 new COVID-19 cases a day

in its worst phase of the pandemic. Hospitals are turning away patients and supplies of oxygen and medicines are running short. In response, people are bypassing the conventional lines of

communication and turning to Twitter to crowdsource help for oxygen cylinders, hospital beds and other requirements. People in need and those with information or resources share telephone

numbers of volunteers, vendors who have oxygen cylinders or drugs and details of which medical facility can take patients using hashtags like #COVIDSOS. Advertisement Some users have offered

to help with home-cooked meals for COVID-19 patients quarantining at home and to meet a host of other needs like arranging to feed pets. “Twitter is having to do what the government

helpline numbers should be doing,” wrote Twitter user Karanbir Singh. “We are on our own folks.” > Please avoid using #COVIDSOS and #COVIDEmergency hashtags for > general COVID tweets 

to allow easier identification of Tweets that > need urgent help. >  > — Parminder Singh (@parrysingh) April 19, 2021 Twitter is not as widely used in India as Facebook or WhatsApp

but it is proving a more valuable tool to get pleas for help out in the coronavirus crisis, largely because of its “re-tweet” function that can quickly amplify a message through users’

networks of contacts. A Google spreadsheet drawn up by a volunteer group that collates information on hospital beds, oxygen supplies, blood plasma and ambulance helplines in various states

is being rapidly shared on Twitter and runs into dozens of pages. Bengaluru-based software developer Umang Galaiya, 25, has created a website that allows users to select the name of the city

and the requirement – be it oxygen or the antiviral drug remdesivir – and then directs them to results on Twitter using its advance search feature. His website has received more than

110,000 hits. “Every other tweet on my feed has been about COVID,” Galaiya said. “I’m glad people are finding this helpful.” But for some, help comes too late. On Monday, journalist Sweta

Dash posted a plea for help on Twitter to find bed with a ventilator for a pregnant woman in New Delhi. Her message spread quickly through more than 100 retweets and a Delhi government

official soon suggested a hospital. Advertisement But a few hours later, Dash posted another message. “The patient passed away”.