The COVID19 has been declared a global pandemic and the situation is getting pretty tense. Many countries have declared a complete lockdown, bringing the daily routine of the people to a complete halt, all in the hopes of controlling the rapid spread of the disease.
India has also suspended all general visas of foreigners coming to India till April 15. Other than that, the government has also closed malls, schools, & colleges in some major cities that have seen cases of the COVID19.
Keeping in mind these developments, many startups have also made efforts to contribute to protection & prevention from the disease of not just their customers but employees as well.
Urban Company
As per the company’s official website, Urban Company (Formerly known as Urban Clap), India’s leading home services marketplace, has rolled out COVID-19 health insurance and income protection cover for all its 30,000 service professionals active on its platform in India. This is a first-of-its-kind initiative in the services gig economy in the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak. For this initiative to safeguard all its professionals, the company has worked on creating a unique insurance solution.
Cure.fit
The fitness company has taken a step further and suspended all its classes all across the country. The suspension will not hamper its customer’s membership but will compensate with a 14 days extension. The notification was shared by the startup on their official Twitter handle.
In light of the Coronavirus outbreak, we are cancelling all https://t.co/PDwHEu0KpH & https://t.co/5bjZnJ84Ny classes effective immediately across centers until further notice. We have added 14 days of pause to your membership so you can pause at your convenience. Stay safe!
— cult (@we_are_cult) March 14, 2020
Zomato
Zomato came up with measures of its own. To help out customers, Zomato also came up with a new feature called contactless delivery, through which delivery personnel could leave the food outside a customer’s door, send them a picture, and leave, thus minimizing contact. Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal recently Tweeted, “We’re also informing our delivery fleet that they don’t need to force themselves to work for financial reasons if they get infected with COVID-19. We’ll support our delivery partners with financial assistance, on top of medical insurance in case they are diagnosed with COVID-19.”
Here is what we are doing as precautionary measures to address COVID-19.
Contactless food delivery is already available on the @zomato app through our ‘delivery instructions’ feature. An app update over the weekend will make this explicitly clear to everyone. pic.twitter.com/HJ012g5zfH
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) March 13, 2020
ixigo
Undoubtedly, the boldest step taken was by ixigo. The company declared a full refund for all international flights ‘No questions asked’ for the most affected sectors. Something not many companies in the service sector would offer on the first go. ixigo truly cares.
Proud to announce the @ixigo “No questions asked” full refund policy for international flight sectors most affected by #coronavirus (irrespective of airline policies). Because we care. https://t.co/MrH4He0T8d
— Aloke Bajpai (@alokebajpai) March 4, 2020
Byju’s
With all the schools & colleges shutting down, an education startup, like Byju’s could have made most of the opportunity. On the contrary, the startup declared that it will be providing free access to its complete app to school students from Classes 1 to 12 till the end of April.
