As the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease continue to increase to 2,995,152 globally, people are coming forward to support each other during this pandemic. To combat this pandemic, organisations all over the globe are pursuing coronavirus relief efforts to help individuals and businesses most affected by widespread sickness.
Tech organizations are donating millions to support SMEs, MSMEs, the frontline healthcare warriors and COVID-19 patients. In the meantime, organizations outside the healthcare sector are producing hand sanitizers, masks and other safety and precautionary products to control the spread of the infection. Many are additionally building up projects to help individuals who cannot come to work. And now we are here to recognize the efforts put forward by some of these organizations to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
1. Amazon
Amazon launched a $5 million Neighborhood Small Business Relief Fund. It will support cash grants for Seattle-area small businesses with fewer than 50 employees or less than $7 million in annual revenue. The fund is aimed at businesses that heavily rely on foot traffic. Amazon is one of the co-creators of the COVID-19 Response Fund and together with Microsoft, Alaska Airlines, and Starbucks Foundation, have donated $2.5 million so far.
The e-commerce company is giving priority to delivering medical supplies and essential items, in addition to test kits in the U.S. They have launched the $21 million Amazon Web Services (AWS) Diagnostic Initiative to accelerate COVID-19 research and committed almost $23 million to support those most affected by the pandemic in Europe.
The e-commerce giant plans to hire more than 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers to cope with a spike in demand. Amazon is also raising pay for these workers based in the U.S. by $2 per hour. Moreover, Amazon on 21 March said it would stop shipping non-essential products to customers in Italy and France, where coronavirus cases have continued to soar.
2. Google
Google has pledged an $800 million coronavirus relief package to help small-to-medium-sized businesses, health organizations, government and healthcare workers affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Part of this package includes $340 million in Google Ad credits for all the small businesses with Google accounts. It includes $240 million in ad grants meant to help the World Health Organization (WHO) and more than 100 government agencies to help spread critical information about COVID-19. Google has teamed up with Magid Glove & Safety to ramp up the production of 2 to 3 million face masks. The company has set aside $20 million in Google Cloud credits for researchers and academic entities working on potential vaccines, therapies and other efforts against the COVID-19 virus. Google established a COVID-19 fund that enables all temporary staff and vendors, globally, to take paid sick leave in case they have potential symptoms of COVID-19 or can’t come into work because they’re quarantined. They have also made their video conferencing service, Hangouts Meet, available for all G-suite customers until July 1, 2020.
3. Unilever
Unilever, the organization behind brands including Dove and Knorr is contributing €100m (£89m) comprehensively to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. Unilever joined forces with the UK government’s Department for International Development by backing up the COVID-19 Handwashing Campaign initiative of £50m and €50m (£47m) worth of cleanser, sanitiser, bleach, food and hygiene products. The London-headquartered firm is adjusting to manufacturing lines to produce and deliver sanitizers for use in welfare institutions such as hospitals, medical clinics. It has additionally sworn to pay its small-sized and medium-sized providers and suppliers ahead of schedule to help their income during this economic crunch.
As summarized by Kiran Mazumdar Shaw of Biocon, ultimately the greatest lesson that COVID-19 can teach humanity is that we are all in this together. To overcome this pandemic, no matter what the economic prices we have to pay and the losses we have to face in the near yet uncertain future, but everyone has to do their part, be it as an individual or MSME or a large MNC. The corporations have come forward together, thus giving us a glimpse of the good that exists other than just annual profits and business expansions.
ABL Recruitment team
