• Till 6th August, StepOne volunteers and doctors have consulted 8,10,000 COVID-positive patients in Delhi and prevented 71,900 new cases
• They counselled 3,88,000 patients in home isolation, making 20,174 beds available for critical patients, and helped 747 patients for mental health matters
• The initiative is currently supporting 15 state governments and city administrators in 33 languages through a network of 7000+ doctors
• Project StepOne is endorsed by 32 state and national medical associations and colleges and its key partners include Genpact, COVID Marshals, Kaleyra, Freshworks, COVID Response, and SHEROES

The Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today unveiled a social impact report of the COVID management measures taken by the Delhi government and outlined how the efforts were efficiently backed by Project StepOne, a community-led volunteer initiative. Till 6^th August, StepOne volunteers and doctors have consulted 8,10,000 COVID-positive patients in Delhi and prevented 71,900 new cases and counselled 747 patients for mental health matters.

Project StepOne is a voluntary, non-profit organization consisting of technologists, doctors and creative solution providers began functioning in Delhi on 1^st June and offers teleconsultation and telemedicine services for COVID and non-COVID patients, including mental health. The effective home isolation and home quarantine monitoring solution managed 3,88,000 patients in home isolation, which in turn, helped making as many as 20,174 beds available for critical patients. The Chief minister remarked that the initiative had led to a cumulative 2524 lives saved by not only escalating emergency flagging through teleconsultation by doctors but also by counsellors guiding recovered citizens to donate at the plasma bank managed by the Government of Delhi.

“The challenges were overwhelming but the interventions were strategically planned to optimize efforts. StepOne efficiently blended technological interventions and human empathy to establish a COVID-positive triaging system, management of ambulances and hospital beds as well as a plasma bank. At its peak, Project StepOne was handling 4000+ live calls a day. We thank the Delhi Government for this opportunity to serve and our key partners – Genpact, COVID Marshals, Kaleyra, Freshworks, COVID Response, and SHEROES – for all their support and constant motivation,” says Raghavendra Prasad T S, Founder, StepOne.

StepOne is currently supporting 15 state governments and city administrators in 33 languages through a network of 7000+ doctors and is endorsed by 32 state and national medical associations and colleges. The initiative is backed by a grant of 25 lakhs each by ACT and Omidyar Network and is efficiently supported by 156 volunteers of the StepOne team and over 550 volunteers of the citizen response team.

Dr Shuchin Bajaj, core team member with Project StepOne, says “We have saved so many lives by just getting the ambulance to serious patients. Our doctors have called them, assessed that the patient is serious, sent the ambulance, taken the patient to hospital. A lot of patients with saturation 70 or 80 or 85 were caught well in time by our doctors. The Delhi Government also has to be thanked for this, they agreed to what we wanted to do, and allotted single points of contact who took care of what was needed.”