Xiaomi, in India willing to donate N95 masks and protective suits to state governments, hospitals and police forces this week, said a higher official of the company on Monday. Due to the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus, the price of N95 masks in India has seen around an 18-fold spike. Adding to this, due the high demand of these masks, the stock is unavailable in most of the parts of the country.
In an open letter to fans and employees, Xiaomi India Managing Director Manu Jain said, “..we have imported lakhs of N95 masks and protective suits to India. We are working with all government authorities to donate these. Lakhs of N95 masks will be donated across state governments such as Karnataka, Punjab and Delhi government, government hospitals and state police starting this week.”
With around 28 per cent market share, Xiaomi leads the Indian smartphone market, according to a Counterpoint Research report. Jain also said that the company will donate hazmat suits to doctors to a few government hospitals such as AIIMS and St. Johns. With the partnership with contract manufacturers Foxconn and Flex, Xiaomi has set up seven factories operational in India. It is said that over 30,000 employees are working on this project all over India.
“At Xiaomi India, we have taken several measures of precaution such as curtailing business travel and external meetings, ensuring employees and all partners wear masks in public and keep their hands clean and sanitized. We have also implemented work from home for employees in offices and encourage maintaining social distance for all employees,” Jain mentions.
As a part of creating social awareness and promoting social distancing, Xiaomi has asked its employees to attend only four customers at a time. This is practised over 2000 service centres of Xiaomi.
Jain said, “We are taking social distancing measures and only appointments via our online token system will be allowed, ensuring no more than 4 customers in the service centers at any point and all devices are sanitized. For all home service requests, all our engineers use masks, shoe covers, sterile gloves and sanitize their hands and devices to ensure maximum hygiene and caution.”
