Xiaomi to donate N95 masks, protective suits to state govts

Smartphone maker Xiaomi will donate N95 masks and protective suits to state governments, hospitals and police forces this week, a top company official said on Monday.

Price of N95 masks in India has seen around 18-fold spike and the stock is unavailable in most parts of the country due to high demand, following outbreak of deadly coronavirus.

"..we have imported lakhs of N95 masks and protective suits to India. We are working with all government authorities to donate these. Lakhs of N95 masks will be donated across state governments such as Karnataka, Punjab and Delhi government, government hospitals and state police starting this week," Xiaomi India Managing Director Manu Jain said in an open letter to fans and employees.

Xiaomi leads Indian smartphone market with around 28 per cent market share, according to Counterpoint Research report.

Jain said that the company will also donate hazmat suits to doctors across a few government hospitals like AIIMS, St. Johns.

Xiaomi has seven factories operational in India, set up in partnership with contract manufacturers Foxconn and Flex. Over 30,000 employees in India work on its projects.

"At Xiaomi India, we have taken several measures of precaution such as curtailing business travel and external meetings, ensuring employees and all partners wear masks in public and keep their hands clean and sanitized. We have also implemented work from home for employees in offices and encourage maintaining social distance for all employees," Jain said.

To promote social distancing, Xiaomi is attending only four customers at a time across its more than 2,000 service centres.

"We are taking social distancing measures and only appointments via our online token system will be allowed, ensuring no more than 4 customers in the service centers at any point and all devices are sanitized. For all home service requests, all our engineers use masks, shoe covers, sterile gloves and sanitize their hands and devices to ensure maximum hygiene and caution," Jain said.