In a bid to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection among its medical staff, the state-run JJ Hospital here has developed a transport chamber for contactless movement of COVID-19 patients within the premises.
Developed by the general surgery department of the hospital with the help of engineers of a firm named Indomed Devices, the patient transport ‘kavach’ aims to reduce the risk of infection among the hospital staff, visitors and other patients. Sanskrit word ‘kavach’ literally means an armour. “The cost-effective glass transport trolley has a HEPA filter at the head end, which filters out particles as small as 0.02 microns,” said Amol Wagh, assistant professor of surgery at JJ Hospital.
“Everyday thousands of health care workers test positive for the infection and have to be quarantined. This results in shortage of medical staff,” he said. Hence, innovation in protective devices is the need of the hour as medical staff has to spend long hours in PPE kits, making it difficult for them to provide required patient care and treatment, Wagh added.
Speaking about the innovation, head of surgery, Dr Ajay Bhandarwar, who came up with the concept, said the trolley will not only prevent transmission of coronavirus, but it also protect COVID-19 patients with low immunity from contracting other infections from their surroundings.
Patients can be incubated in the trolley and tests, such as sonography, can also be done when the patient is inside the chamber, Wagh said, adding that engineers and experts are working on ways to install the chamber in ambulances and make it compatible for CT scans.
Meanwhile, India’s COVID-19 tally reached 16,95,988 on Saturday with a record single-day increase of 57,118 cases, while the recoveries surged to 10,94,374, according to the Union Health Ministry data.
The death toll due to COVID-19 climbed to 36,511 with 764 people succumbing to the disease in a 24-hour span, the data updated at 8 am showed. At present, there are 5,65,103 active cases in the country. The recovery rate among COVID-19 patients was recorded at 64.53 per cent, while the fatality rate further dropped to 2.15 per cent, the data stated.
Leave a comment