The ‘K-180’ is an N-95 mask that would cover a major part of the face. (Representational Photo)
A HOSHIARPUR firm — Surgeine Safety Products — has manufactured a new protective mask specifically designed for men with beards.
The ‘K-180’ is an N-95 mask that would cover a major part of the face — from the nose to the lower part of chin and left and right parts of the face.
The company recently got approval from the Government of India for mass-level production of N-95 masks to meet the demand during Coronavirus outbreak.
“The beard is a fashion all over the world but people in Punjab also keep beards for religious reasons. I am also a Sikh. I was receiving feedback, mostly from Sikhs, that there should be a mask for people with beards. So we have come up with this mask,” said Gurbhagat Singh, owner of Surgeine Safety Products.
He said, “The mask will cover a large portion of the face. It will come with tight elastic to properly seal a bearded face. We will start production possibly by next Wednesday.”
“All masks come with instructions that a beard can affect the fitting of the mask and it may not allow proper sealing of the face. So particles can infiltrate inside. We would like to get feedback from the market before marking it as a mask for bearded people. There are different styles of beards. The success of the mask will also depend upon the style of beard,” said Gurbhagat.
Remote-controlled trolley for COVID-19 ward
Meanwhile, in Amritsar, a company called Singh Industries has constructed a remote control trolley which can be of great help to health workers looking after coronavirus patients.
The trolley has been designed for movement of food and medicines inside the COVID-19 ward without manual push. It has been already approved by the Amritsar administration after a demo.
“This trolley is fully operated by remote control. It can transport food, water, medicine to any patient. This way the staff will not have to go too close to the patient. The trolley is capable of rotating up to 360 degrees, carry upto 40 kg, get commands from the remote up to 100 feet with 5 to 6 hours battery back-up,” Kanwarbir Singh of Singh Industries.
He added, “We were asked to construct such a trolley by the administration. We took less than a week to come up with this. We are also going to install a camera in the trolley so that health workers can control it while sitting back in office and they should not need to move. Trolley focuses on reducing the movement of health workers inside COVID-19 ward to further reduce possibility of infection.”
The firm is presently making 4-5 such trollies a day but can increase production to 15 trollies. They have also come up with disinfecting chamber for public places that will be out soon.
Deputy Commissioner Shivdular Singh Dhillon expressed satisfaction over the success of the trial of the trolley. He said a care center for 1,000 patients has been set up at Meritorious School which would be supervised by a senior doctor. He said that at this center, a registration counter for patients, room for doctor, room for nurses, waiting room, arrangement for washing clothes, pharmacy, room for changing PPE kit etc. all facilities have been provided. Special provision has also been made for bio-medical waste.