COVID-19: YouTube tutorial guides Tripura cop to make full body sanitisation unit

While the DRDO sanitisation units cost Rs 4,00,000, this contraption, made with the help of a YouTube video, cost Rs 15,000.

tripura police sanitsation

The coronavirus outbreak has led a Tripura Police officer to devise a low-cost, 360-degree full body sanitisation unit following a YouTube tutorial. The unit sprays a heavily diluted solution of sodium hypochloride (one per cent to be specific) in mist form on people who stand inside the vinyl-covered booth for about four to five seconds.

Speaking to Indianexpress.com this evening, Khowai district Superintendent of Police Kiran Kumar said the unit is a low-cost contraption. It involves a motor, some piping, agricultural sprayers, a cover and a solution of heavily diluted sodium hypochloride.

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“I was browsing the internet to do something regarding COVID-19. I found that DRDO had already worked on the formula and installed such a unit at an AIIMS Hospital,” said the official, “Earlier, it was done by District Collector at Tirupur in Tamil Nadu followed by similar steps at Jaipur in Rajasthan and Chandigarh in Haryana.”

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According to the policeman, there are ample videos available on YouTube with step-by-step guides on how to build the unit. “I simply followed the instructions and completed the unit within Rs 15,000,” he said. The contraption was ready in 11 hours, with the help of a few local plumbers.

Sodium hypochloride in the form of a bleach solution is used in the contraption. “It is a very good solution that kills almost any deadly virus instantly. But it comes in a concentrated form, which is why we diluted it to one per cent. It is almost harmless in that proportion since two per cent of this solution is used in swimming pools,” SP Kumar said.

The YouTube video he followed gave instructions suggested by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The official says he tested the solution on himself before releasing the contraption for public use. It can sanitise 450 people on a daily basis and can be shifted from place to place in a moment’s notice.

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Kumar has claimed that while the DRDO units cost Rs 4,00,000, his cost only Rs 15,000 to get it up and running.

A video of the sanitizer unit was posted by Tripura Police Cyber Crime Branch on their Facebook handle, with netizens lauding the idea.

In a letter from Tripura Health Secretary Debashish Basu to BSF Tripura Frontiers Inspector General, the health official requested the border guards to install RUMSHA Hydro-Pneumatic Suface disinfectant machine and RUMSHA 2 sec-360 degree full body sanitiser, which does the same job, and is in use at the Agartala Government Medical College (AGMC) and Gobinda Ballabh Pant (GBP) Hospital in Agartala.

Tripura has two reported positive cases of COVID-19 so far.

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