Kerala Central prison produces gowns for health workers fighting against COVID-19

The Central Prison in Kerala on Friday began producing gowns and uniforms for medical professionals, who are battling COVID-19 pandemic on the frontline. Earlier, the prison had produced several masks to meet the increase in its demand. 

Speaking about the boost in production, superintendent of the prison B. Sunil Kumar said that they have received an order from the Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) to produce 500 gowns for their staff. He noted than an increase in COVID-19 cases has led to a rise in demand for the gowns. Sunil Kumar also said, as the material for producing uniforms is provided by the SCTIMST, they will only charge for stitching the gowns, and that too at low costs.

The Central jail has already supplied a set of 25 gowns to the hospital, and many more are in the making. Besides this, Kerala prison is also producing sanitiser to meet the increase in demand amid COVID-19 scare. Kumar said that the Excise Department has provided them with 7,000 litres of spirit to produce sanitisers that are slot at Rs 50 for 100 ml bottle each. Most of these sanitisers are bought by the Excise Department itself. 

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Tihar, Mandoli jail inmates stitch 75,000 masks

Prisoners at the Tihar and Mandoli jails in Delhi have stitched 75,000 face masks since March for the traffic police, the prisons' inmates and for organisations that placed orders in the wake of novel coronavirus pandemic, prison department officials said. The department has also produced 750 litres of sanitiser, they said.

"The masks are being prepared at the Tihar and Mandoli jails. These masks are also being supplied to the Rohini jail. We are preparing masks majorly for our own use and are also supplying them to different organisations as per their requirement," Director General for Prisons Sandeep Goel said.

"The Delhi Traffic Police approached us and we gave them 3,000 masks last week," he said.

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The process of making masks was started in March and 75,000 masks have been made so far, the officials said, adding that 1,500 to 2,000 masks are being made every day.

"We have supplied 500 masks to the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), 2,000 to the Delhi State Legal Services Authority, Karkardooma Court, 2,000 to the Sub Divisional Magistrate, Nand Nagri, and 1,000 to the Women and Child Welfare Department," Goel said.

As of Friday, India has recorded 5709 active cases of COVID-19 and 199 deaths. 503 have been discharged so far.

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