Coronavirus: Chennai's 3D printing community makes face shields for healthcare workers

Many small firms in Chennai are leveraging 3D printing technology to make face shields for the doctors and medical professionals to reduce the shortage of such equipment in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Healthcare workers and medical professionals can use these masks while treating Covid-19 positive patients, said people with knowledge about the 3D printing domain.

"We are making these face shields as second-layer protection for healthcare workers. The face mask has a short lifeline and these shields will withstand longer," said Surendranath Reddy, CEO, 3Ding.

"The masks are produced in bulk by members of 3D printing community and the finished masks are being provided to hospitals," he added.

Ameya Deshpande from Groundup Technology, said, "We are making two types of shields. One is disposable and the second can be sanitized and reused. We are working round the clock to create the required number of face shield with the limited resources available to us."

Members from the 3D printing community said this is a small contribution to support the heroes, who are tackling Covid-19 from the front.

Many companies and individuals from all walks of life have joined the fight against novel coronavirus in India. Some companies are manufacturing important medical equipment, while others are making sizeable contributions to the PM-CARES fund.

The government, apart from announcing a slew of relief measures, allocated Rs 15,000 crore to improve the efficiency of the country’s healthcare. It has also taken measures for frontline healthcare workers including a Rs 50 lakh insurance cover per person.

However, the acute shortage of medical equipment in the wake of the virus outbreak in India has left many healthcare workers in India exposed to the virus.

But the government is now getting support from a number of companies and small scale manufacturers, who are using their facilities to produce vital medical equipment.

As of Wednesday, India has over 4,400 detected cases of Covid-19 and 114 have died after contracting the virus.

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