Mumbai, May 27 (IANS): The Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) has donated 34 ventilators worth Rs 4 crore to the Maharashtra government for use by Covid-19 patients in the current pandemic second wave, an official said here on Thursday.

These include ventilators worth Rs 1.50-crore to BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) hospitals in Mumbai, over Rs 1-crore worth ventilators to Pune Municipal Corporation, two of the worst hotspots.

The rest have been sent to government hospitals in Chiplun in Ratnagiri and Nashik, where the HUL has its factories.

Earlier, the HUL had donated 29 ventilators worth Rs 3 crores to government hospitals in the state in a bid to augment the medical infrastructure in the state, said the company Managing Director Sanjiv Mehta.

Earlier this month, Mehta said the HUL has airlifted over 5,000 oxygen concentrators to India through partnerships with KVN Foundation and Portea which helped Covid-19 patients get medical oxygen directly to their homes, reducing the pressure on the public health system.

Last year, HUL committed Rs 100-crore to support communities impacted by the pandemic with foodkits distributed to over 100,000 migrants and their families for 15 days, providing 20 million soaps to help hygiene among people all over India and tied up with various groups to arrange isolation with medical facilities, etc, and awareness campaigns reaching some 600 million people in the past 15 months.