IIT Bhubaneswar develops multi-surface sanitiser using UVC light for disinfection of devices

India fights the threat posed by the coronavirus, IIT Bhubaneswar has designed a safe and multi-surface sanitiser using UVC light for the disinfection of devices. "You can place an infected object into the chamber and once it gets exposed to ultraviolet light, the device would be disinfected within 15 minutes," said Professor RV Raja Kumar, Director, IIT, Bhubaneswar, speaking about the device.

He added that the university has developed the chamber for the disinfection of masks, PPEs worn by the doctors and devices like cell phones, etc as they "cannot be disinfected with soap water easily". But there is a long way to go before it can be used in homes, as it first needs to be certified by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)."This device has been developed based on the results available for SARS CoV-1 and the same device is expected to work for SARS CoV-2. We are going to test for SARS CoV-2 and then get a certificate from ICMR," he added.

Professor RV Raja Kumar further said that the device was developed to control the number of deaths of healthcare workers due to COVID-19. Dr Devi Prasad Dogra, Assistant Professor Computer science, IIT, Bhubaneswar said: "We made this model based on a research paper which was based on SARS CoV-1. We are confident that this device would work for COVID-19. "

Odisha has a tally of 118 COVID-19 cases of which, 37 patients have recovered and one patient has died due to the deadly virus, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.