Is PPE Shortage Driving Adoption Of Robots For Assistance?

Anticipating the threat on healthcare workers in contracting corona infection, hospitals in India have started turning to robots for COVID-19 management. Robots help lessen exposure of healthcare workers to the virus thereby reducing danger of infection. They not only help in contactless screening but are also capable of other operations.

- Swati Shrivastava

Keeping safe distance between individuals is hence one of the best tools considered to prevent spreading of SARS-CoV-19. However, certain professional duties present challenges to follow social distancing and falling in this category are majorly the healthcare workers, who are responsible for testing, diagnosis and treatment. A slight mishandling of the situation can lead to a health center becoming a hotspot of the disease.

The Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has issued guidelines for rational use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) such as gloves, coveralls/gowns, headcover, goggles, N-95 masks, shoe covers, face shields, triple-layer medical masks and body bags, to safeguard healthcare workers providing assistance in various settings of hospitals. Additionally, PPEs are also deployed by health workers in community settings as field staff, staff at quarantine facilities and home quarantine.

In a span of two months, India has emerged as the second-largest manufacturer of PPEs in the world. While India had no local manufacturing capacity of PPEs in February, and had experienced shortage for the same, a focused push for the ramp-up production was ensured for self-sufficiency. Though India managed to import around 52,000 PPE kits in February, the joint effort of Ministry of Textiles and India’s top textile manufacturers such as Arvind Mills, 3M, Aditya Birla, Alok Industries, JCT Phagwara, Gokaldas Exports, Indian Technical Textile Association (ITTA) with others, has led to the manufacturing of an average of current three lakh PPE kits per day.