Design and Evaluation of Chitra Swab Collection Booths for Health Professionals in COVID-19 Pandemic

The 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), officially named as COVID-19 by the WHO, has spread to more than 180 countries and the confirmed coronavirus cases have reached around 10 million with 0.6 million deaths by end of June 2020. Moreover, there is no sign of a sustained decline in any country till date. Continuous rise of positive cases has instilled fear in people, society and even health professionals. According to WHO’s daily situation report, 22,073 COVID-19 cases of healthcare professionals have been reported to the WHO as of Wednesday, 8 April 2020 by Jin (Mil Med Res 7:24, 2020). Infection to health professionals is a serious concern not only because they are a valuable frontline worker but also because of the risk of spread to co-workers and non-Covid patients. This project was undertaken to develop a solution to minimize the chance of infection to the health care professionals by providing them isolation from a potential source of Covid-19 and similar highly contagious diseases. The two models of Chitra swab collection booth were developed to: (1) protect health professionals from the risk of infection (2) to provide technical know-how to manufacturers to produce booths using locally available materials while meeting international regulations and (3) reduce the consumption of personal protective equipment. The prototypes developed were tested for safety and efficacy in accordance with the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, USA. The device received the registration for commercialisation from the Central Drugs Control Standard Organization, Ministry of Health, Government of India, as a non-notified medical device.