Pooja Kumari enrolled herself in the UberMedic programme to fill in for the few ambulance services available to cancer and dialysis patients during the lockdown, a job that involves driving about 200 km every day
Pooja Kumari has been an Uber driver for two years, and eight months ago, bought herself a Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire
Today is an easy day for Pooja Kumari. But just yesterday, the 24-year-old drove 170 kilometres ferrying ailing cancer and dialysis patients from their homes to their respective hospitals, across New Delhi and Ghaziabad. Kumari is a driver for ride hailing app Uber’s UberMedic programme, which is dedicated to transporting frontline healthcare workers and critical patients during the pandemic.
UberMedic was launched across 10 Indian cities on April 15, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Noida, Pune and Bengaluru, among others. Kumari, who has been an Uber taxi driver for the past two years decided that she wants to be part of the initiative.
According to Uber, currently, more than 18 Indian hospitals are using the service. Based on an agreement with the National Health Authority (NHA), Uber is making its Medic cars available to many of these public sector hospitals free of cost.
“In the early days of the lockdown, I was scared to drive passengers around for fear of the coronavirus,” Kumari says. “But Uber has provided me with a safety kit and step-by-step instructions, which helped me decide to go back to driving. I’ve been doing it for two months now.”