Living in lockdown and amidst significantly high infection rates, our colleagues in India are still dealing with a devasting crisis with COVID-19.

While those of us in the U.S. have had access to a vaccine for months, employees based in Bangalore and Hyderabad have faced limited access to vaccinations while also dealing with the new Delta variant.

“Bottom line, what India has been facing in the past months has been a result of the perfect storm,” said Dr. Derek Mydlarz, global medical executive director for GE Appliances. “You have a very large, vulnerable population, an extremely infectious variant, an unprepared infrastructure, underspending on vaccine development and a couple of poor decisions by the government that has led to the disaster that they have experienced.”

But now, thanks to the hard work and collaboration of our colleagues around the globe, GEA has held two onsite vaccination drives for our India team and their families in Bangalore and Hyderabad.

The drive was organized by the HR team with the help of our insurance providers along with HCG hospital.

The admin team, the Business Continuity Planning team, and a few of our employees did a fabulous job of organizing to ensure a smooth process, with over 56 percent of employees receiving their first dose.

It was critical to host these drives not only for our employees but also for their family members.

“Our best efforts were to be part of the GEA family in these difficult times. We constantly kept looking for ways to touch lives and the vaccination drive is one way we could do that,” said Hemavathi Byrappa, director of HR client support. “Easing the struggle to find vaccination slots and provide a safe and secure environment to get vaccinated was the objective behind this initiative. We are glad we could truly be there for our employees and family members when they needed us the most."

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