50 doctors and medical staff contract Covid-19, DRDO steps up work on protective gear
New Delhi: Nearly 50 healthcare providers across the country have contracted the novel coronavirus, the Union health ministry said Thursday. The confirmation comes at a time medical professionals have been complaining of a lack of adequate equipment, including masks, to deal with coronavirus cases.
These 50 healthcare workers across India include doctors, nurses and other paramedical staff, according to ministry sources.
Covid-19 risk to healthcare workers
The healthcare workers would have contracted the infection from three sources — patients, positive co-workers and people (doctors/personnel) who have travelled abroad.
Currently, there are over 1,700 active cases of coronavirus and 50 deaths have reported, while as many as 151 patients have recovered.
“Hospitals are now being trained to prevent hospital-related infections,” said a ministry official, who did not wish to be named. The official also refused to give any details on the doctors and the hospitals concerned.
Need for personal protective equipment
Over the past 10 days, reports of healthcare professionals demanding more personal protective equipment (PPE) and safeguards have emerged. Several even took to social media to complain about the lack.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), PPE consist of garments worn to protect healthcare workers or any other person from getting infected. These include gloves, medical masks, goggles or a face shield, and gowns, as well as for specific procedures, respirators (i.e., N95 or FFP2 standard or equivalent) and aprons.
DRDO working on special suit
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed a new kind of PPE that is being sent out to medical teams.
The ADRDE, Agra, a laboratory of the DRDO that works with coating technology and nanotechnology, has developed a specific type of fabric to make bio suits that protect one from the virus, the DRDO said.
A prototype of the suit has been subjected to rigorous testing for textile parameters as well as protection against synthetic blood, the DRDO stated.
The protection against synthetic blood, which acts as a substitute for red blood cells, exceeds the criteria defined for body suits by Ministry of Health.
Kusumgarh Industries is producing the raw material and coating material, while the complete suit is being manufactured with the help of another company.
At present, the production capacity is 7,000 suits per day. The DRDO is looking to scale this up to 15,000 suits per day.
The print
