Auto ambulances set to ferry COVID patients to hospitals

Vehicles equipped with portable oxygen cans to start service today

The Ernakulam Jilla Autorickshaw Drivers’ Cooperative Society (EJADCS) and the Kochi Corporation will launch AuSa on Monday, an emergency ambulance service to help ferry COVID patients to hospitals in autorickshaws equipped with portable oxygen cans and PPE kits. The service took its name from AuSa, the society’s ride app. Each autorickshaw can hold three cans having sufficient quantity of oxygen to ferry patients to hospitals. The 24x7 service available in eight zones of Kochi Corporation is being introduced since ambulances are sometimes tough to get, Binu Varghese and Simon Edapally, office-bearers of the society, said. They will also be deployed for delivery of medicines, pulse oximeter, infrared thermometer etc., to patients. Sixteen driver volunteers, including a woman driver, who will operate in two shifts, attended a training programme held in this regard. Safety kits and medical equipment, including portable oxygen cans, were handed over to them.