In an effort to help people of the Nation in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Lalit Kumar Awasthi, Director, National Institute of Technology Jalandhar (NITJ) appealed to all faculty, staff and students of the Institute to contribute to the country in the time of need. Under his able leadership, Low Cost Face Mask and Cost Effective Surgical Gown / PPE for Health Care Workers have been developed.
Prof A Mukhopadhyay and Prof V Midha, Department of Textile technology, have developed low cost face mask to reduce the risk of droplet infection. Facemasks help in stopping large particle droplets, splashes, sprays or splatter, aerosol that may contain germs (viruses and bacteria) from reaching the wearer’s mouth and nose and may help to prevent transmission. It will definitely help the health warriors working in difficult conditions without proper protection.
Further, they have started work on cost effective Surgical Gowns/ PPE for health care workers. Surgical gowns/PPE address a dual function of preventing transfer of microorganism and body fluids from operating staff to the patient and also from patient to operating staff. It will definitely help the Doctors treating COVID patients.
A group of Faculty led by the worthy Director of the Institute, Dr. Lalit Kumar Awasthi, voluntarily arranged food for laborers living in the nearby villages around the campus. These daily wage workers were without work and money due to imposition of Curfew in Jalandhar in wake of COVID-19 outbreak in Jalandhar city. Daily 180 packets of food have been distributed regularly since 22nd March 2020.