Testing kits to low cost ventilators, how IITs have been instrumental in battling COVID

IITs across the nation have been very instrumental in providing ammunition against COVID19. In the past three months, IITs have developed several innovations that have proved to be fruitful. Talking about several innovations made by the IITs, Director Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (IIT) Delhi told Republic TV, in the past months 20 research teams are working to help fight this battle against COIVD.

He added that instead of going back home amid pandemic, his students and faculty came forward and offered to work to help the nation. The IITs have developed many innovations such as testing kits, low-cost ventilators, infection proof fabric and digital stethoscope.

Talking about the COVID testing kit which will cost around Rs 500 only, Prof Rao told Republic TV, "The cost of our kit is Rs 500, we have licensed it to six industries now. It is only a matter of days to weeks now, this technology will be out in the market." "ICMR has already approved this test, being low cost is the USP of the technology. We will be able to put out a million testing kits in the society and change the paradigm of testing," he added.

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Talking about the low-cost ventilators developed by IIT, which will cost Rs 70,000 in comparison to ones in the market that can cost around Rs 4 lakhs he said that his institution is working with AIIMS and soon the product will be inducted in the market.  "We have very low-cost ventilators. We are working with AIIMS we have made considerable progress. It is on the way to getting inducted in the hospitals," he said. 

Explaining about the infection proof fabric developed by IIT, he said masks made by this fabric costs around Rs 45 and the quality is almost equivalent to N-95 masks which are expensive in comparison.

"The infection proof fabric makes n-95 equivalent masks. They have anti-bacterial/viral coatings. These are very low-cost products. These are also washable masks can be washed up to 50 times and be reused. IIT Delhi masks are being sold all over We have sold 10lakh masks in last six weeks. 26 states have imported these masks. These are also startups. These will be the future large companies which everyone will be proud of," he said

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Asserting that India has been independently fighting the war against COVID he said, "I fully agree with you. We have been in self-discovery mode. We have rose up to the occasion. My students said we don't want to go home, we want to work in these r areas. at least 20 research groups have started working in the campus on COVID related technology." With 12,881 fresh cases, the coronavirus tally in India rose to 366,946 on Thursday. So far 2,262 people have succumbed to the deadly virus.

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(Representative Image)