By Matters India Reporter
Thiruvananthapuram, March 24, 2020: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has welcomed as a “morale booster” the Catholic Church’s offer of its healthcare institutions to the state to fight the coronavirus.
“I am grateful to the Church for offering the needed help at this critical time,” Vijayan tweeted on March24.
He said Cardinal George Alencherry, president of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council, had telephoned him to inform the Church’s willingness to provide its hospitals and healthcare workers such as doctors and nurses to treat coronavirus patients.
“We appreciate this gesture that has boosted the government’s morale and strengthen our arrangements,” the chief minister said.
Meanwhile, Cardinal Alencherry has urged his people organize voluntary service teams in parishes and dioceses to collaborate with the government agencies in assisting the corona virus infected people and their families.
He suggested setting up a team of healthcare personnel comprising doctors and nurses, including the retired ones.
The team could conduct awareness programs for the people about the safety measures to be adopted in the current situation as the number of the patients with Covid 19 is on the increase.
“As we are conducting the largest number of private hospitals in Kerala, we have to be at the service of society to tide over this crisis,” the cardinal wrote to his people.
The Catholic Church in Kerala has some 370 healthcare and related institutions. They include three medical colleges, 12 hospitals with more 400 beds and 145 hospitals with less than 400 beds.