E-Paper
IIT Roorkee develops COVID-19 screening booth to collect samples
The project for developing the screening booth was financed by the RMC and was handed over to the town’s civil hospital for installation and use, said officials.
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee has developed a COVID-19 screening booth to collect samples of the suspects with the help of Roorkee Municipal Corporation (RMC), said officials of one of the country’s premier engineering institutes on Wednesday.
The project for developing the screening booth was financed by the RMC and was handed over to the town’s civil hospital for installation and use, said officials.
Professor Soumitra Satapathi, who led the team of professors and research scholars involved in the development of the screening booth said, “The screening booth developed on the design similar to a telephone booth will reduce the need for costly PPE kits used by health workers while collecting samples for COVID-19 suspects.”
Satapathi said, “The booth can accommodate a health worker while being completely vacuum sealed as a precautionary measure. It has forearm length gloves to be used for collecting samples, thus eliminating the chances of personal contact while taking samples by the health worker.”
The professor informed that the whole procedure of taking the samples from the screening booth “could be completed in five minutes.”
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, IIT Roorkee has been contributing significantly by inventing economical equipment to be used in the fight against the deadly virus. Earlier it had developed low-cost ventilators as well as face shields for the health workers to prevent themselves from getting infected while handling patients. It has also been making hand sanitizers in its laboratory and supplying to nearby areas as per demand.
