Coimbatore : The Mata Amritanandamayi Math Monday announced a donation rs.l3 crores [$1.7 million U.S.] to help combat and contain COVID-19 as well as to provide relief to those physically, mentally and economically affected by the virus.

Moreover, it will provide free care to COVID-19 patients at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (Amrita Hospital) in Kochi.

According to a release Rs.10 crores will go to the Central Government’s PM CARES Fund, and rs.three crores to the Kerala Government’s Chief
Minister’s Distress Relief Fund.

“Seeing the entire world hurting and crying in pain, my heart is aching deeply,” Math head, Mata Amirthnand Mayi, popularly called as Amma in a statement issued by the Math, said, she said. 

“Let us all pray for the souls who have succumbed to this pandemic, for the mental peace of their families and friends, for the peace of the world, and for God’s grace,he said.

At Amma’s request Amrita University and Amrita Hospital have set up a mental-health hotline (0476 280 5050), where people who are feeling stressed, anxious or depressed due to the pandemic and its ramifications can call to get free support.

Through Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (Amrita University), the Math also has a interdisciplinary team researching ways to produce low-cost scalable medical masks, gowns and face-protection visors, as well as ventilators, rapid-setup isolation wards, units for sterilizing medical waste, and IoT means for the remote monitoring of quarantined patients.

The team includes more than 60 faculty from the fields of medicine, nanoscience, AI, big data, sensor-manufacturing and material sciences.