ICICI Lombard launches free COVID-19 testing for underprivileged; partners with Apollo Health & Lifestyle, Metropolis Healthcare

ICICI Lombard General Insurance partnered with Apollo Health & Lifestyle, subsidiary of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, and Metropolis Healthcare to prevent COVID-19 infection among the country’s underprivileged people. Accordingly, ICICI Lombard will fund the entire screening procedure, including the testing kits required for examining probable cases infected with coronavirus. It has committed a sum of Rs 5 crore for the initiative that will benefit the underprivileged section of the society. A COVID-19 test currently costs Rs 4,500, which includes cost of testing kit, sample collection from home, diagnosis, generating test results etc. As such, the initiative will benefit over 11,000 underprivileged citizens, who show symptoms of the virus and hence need to be tested on priority. [caption id=“attachment_8190811” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] Further, if testing kits costs come down, the initiative will benefit an even larger section of this community. The exercise will cover Antyodaya ration card and BPL ration card holders. Bhargav Dasgupta, MD & CEO, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, said, “In these challenging times, the underprivileged section of the society is highly vulnerable to COVID-19 pandemic. Their timely screening is the first step to curtail the spread of the virus." Sangita Reddy, managing director, Apollo Health & Lifestyle, said, “Early screening of probable COVID-19 can make all the difference to our efforts in curtailing this pandemic. At Apollo Health & Lifestyle, we are geared up to this initiative that will truly benefit India’s underprivileged populace.” Ameera Shah, managing director, Metropolis Healthcare said, “The underprivileged section of the society needs to be screened for any COVID-19 infection, in time, to prevent further outbreak. We will initiate the screening activity in Maharashtra. Further, we will expand the reach of this initiative to other states in the coming days.” ICICI Lombard, Apollo Health & Lifestyle and Metropolis Healthcare will jointly work towards creating awareness about the initiative among the beneficiaries through their various mass reach platforms.