As the number of corona virus infections in the country surges, the Kwara State Polytechnic has developed a germicidal hand rub to curb the spread of the virus; even as the institution disclosed plan to produce other variants of sanitizers such as the antivirus wipes.
Presenting the sanitizers to the Kwara State Deputy Governor, Mr Kayode Alabi who doubles as the Chairman of the State Taskforce on COVID-19, Mr O. E. Adeyemo of the Department of Science Laboratory Technology, and the Rector of the Polytechnic, Engr. Dr Abdul Jimoh Muhammed noted that the move was borne out of the institution's desire to contribute its quota to assist the government's fight against the pandemic.
The Deputy Governor, who was in company of the Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, Mrs. Saadatu Modibbo Kawu, commended the institution for the timely intervention, which he said came at a crucial time.
In a chat with INSIDER, a member of the Kwara Poly team which produced the sanitizers disclosed that the institution was nursing plans to produce antivirus wipes which would not be too cumbersome to carry around.
"What we have presented to the state government is not the end. We are also planning on other forms of sanitizers, not only the liquid one that you rub on your hands. We are looking for other ways of producing sanitizers that will not be too cumbersome to carry around; and which can be used for cleaning surfaces too. For example you go to the ATM and you don't know who used the machine last, you can easily use the wipe to clean it before you punch in your details.
"The school management, in its wisdom, felt that Kwara Polytechnic can contribute its quota to what the state government is doing to curb the spread of COVID-19, and so it charged the Science Laboratory Technology Department with the responsibility of coming up with the hand sanitizer as its own way of making input. Without waste of time, it was achieved. Even though it cost a reasonable amount of money, we decided to donate the hand sanitizers to the government," the source hinted.
Continuing, the source stated that a part of the motivation for the intervention of the institute was the increasing proliferation of fake and substandard hand sanitizers since the breakout of the Covid 19 pandemic.
In his words, "One of the reasons we came up with this was because people were taking advantage of this period to produce different sorts of substandard sanitizers which are not effective. In a bid to offer something different to the people, we decided to produce the standard recommended by the World Health Organization. I don't know what standard other makers of sanitizers adopted, but we at Kwara Poly adopted the recommended WHO formulation. If you look around, you would see santizers of different colors and thickness.
"WHO have stated that sanitizers designed for COVID-19 are not meant to be thick. Some are even producing antibacterial santizers and selling it to people to use against Covid which is a virus. We at Kwara Poly can beat our chest that if any trace of COVID-19 is found, our sanitizers can curb it."
INSIDER learnt that Kwara polytechnic donated about 200 pieces of its newly made sanitizers to the state government. However, officials of the institution who confided in this medium disclosed that with minimal funding support, the institution has the facilities and knowhow to produce more innovative antivirus sanitizers in large quantities in order to tackle the current epidemic.
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