Combating coronavirus: New gadgets designed to fight Covid-19

Here are some Covid-19 induced innovations.

The saying goes 'necessity is the mother of invention', and so has the coronavirus pandemic propelled an urgent need of creativity and innovation to safeguard from the contagion.

The global economy is hit hard, thousands have lost lives and millions of people are locked up in their houses in the aftermath of the deadly Covid-19 outbreak. These tricky times have hence brought to the fore the need to be able to use innovations in everyday life when it comes to hygiene.

New innovations are being introduced almost everyday, from hands-free door openers that can be 3D-printed, to basic ventilators, wrist-mounted disinfectant sprays, to a wristband that buzzes whenever you're about to touch your face.
Covid-19 induced innovations:
Hands-free door openers

People can look forward to several varieties of hygiene-friendly door-hook so that the need to touch the door handle with sanitised hands does never arise.

This seems to be more than ever important after epidemiologists estimate the coronavirus can live on surfaces like stainless steel for three days. And hands-free door openers can be life-saving especially in hospital wards where frontline staff comes in direct contact with infected patients daily.

Some door-opening devices are already available in market - including the "hygienehook", created by London-based designer Steve Brooks.

The hygienehook is small enough to fit in a pocket and made from easy-to-clean non-porous material and is available in four different varieties. Brooks has had requests from NHS Wales and is, meanwhile, donating a hook for every one he sells.

While, a hands-free door opener which clips onto door handles and can be operated using the forearm, devised by Welshman Wyn Griffiths is being 3D printing online for free. Griffiths is asking people to print and distribute the handles wherever possible. "Hopefully people who have a 3D printer can help out their local hospital or anywhere the public visits by distributing these around the country," Weforum.org quoted Griffiths as saying in the BBC.
Masks and ventilators

A company, Virustatic Shield, came up with a snood mask with an antiviral coating which it plans to scale up production to a million a week and reserve part of their stock for the UK's National Health Service.

Dr Rhys Thomas of Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen in Wales devised a "simple and robust" basic ventilator designed to help patients breathe - and which also kills Covid-19. "Although it won't replace an ICU ventilator, the majority of patients won't need intensive care if they are treated with this ventilator first," Glangwili said.

"The machine will [also] clean the room of viral particles and only supply purified air to the patient. The patient can self-care, releasing specialist nurses for other duties," he added.
Covid-beating competition

While inspiring innovators to come up with technological creativity, the California 3D modelling company, CAD Crowd, has launched a month-long prototypes competition. At the time of writing, the 77 entrants range from the printable protective face shields and temporary acrylic doors for supermarket fruit displays, to the ingenious innovations like disposable doorknob sleeves and an elbow-operated extension for lift buttons.

And out-of-the-box innovations like foot-operated doorknobs, could become the new common as the world attitude toward hand hygiene is set to alter permanently.