The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Berhampur and an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) have jointly produced hand sanitisers for distribution to Odisha government employees who are on duty amid the coronavirus outbreak, officials said.

"We have produced around 350 bottles of 30 ml hand sanitisers for use by on-duty government employees. We will hand these over to the Berhampur Municipal Corporation for distribution," ITI principal Rajat Kumar Panigrahy said.

The hand sanitisers were produced at an IISER laboratory by Panigrahy and three other staff of the ITI along with faculty members of the institute's Department of Chemistry, he said. "As there is an acute shortage of hand sanitisers in the market due to sudden rise in demand, we have decided to give them away to government employees for free," Panigrahy said.

Moreover, in view of the demand for hand sanitisers, some traders in the town are selling products of much inferior quality at higher prices, he said. The hand sanitisers have been produced as per World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations, said Rakesh Pathak, head of the Department of Chemistry of IISER, Berhampur.