Indo Tibetan Border Police Jawans Make Affordable Masks And Protection Kits To Fight COVID-19

New Delhi: The jawans of Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) are preparing masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) kits with a nominal price tag of Rs. 5 and Rs. 100 respectively to fight COVID-19. "It is these jawans of ITBP, who are preparing masks and PPE kits for our citizens, who need these protective gears to fight with the COVID-19," Mukesh Saraf, Commandant, ITBP, Service and Supply Battalion, Sonipat, Haryana, told ANI.

The masks and PPE kits are available at a price of Rs. 5 and Rs. 100, whereas, these were initially sold for Rs. 50-Rs 600 and Rs. 4,500, said Mr Saraf.

The ITBP is maintaining the biggest quarantine facility of around 1,000 patients at Chawla, added Mr Saraf.

"It was the first quarantine centre which was set up in the country and the Government of India decided to bring back our people from Wuhan, China way back in January 2020 keeping in view the COVID-19 crisis," he said.

The main requirement for the medical staff and the associated paramedical staff and others here are PPE kits and masks. Since these are very expensive and are not available easily in the market, so a direction was given to me since my unit was already running a fabrication centre to try and design masks and PPE kits, triple-layered mask, which could be supplied to the quarantine centre, he added.

These 20-25 odd jawans are dedicatedly working and making preparations for at least around 50 masks and 5 PPE kits daily, and they are working for 7-9 hours per day to prepare these protective gears, Mr Saraf said.

AIIMS, Delhi, has given the go-ahead and said that these masks and PPE kits can be used as these are as good as the PPE kits available in the market, said Mr Saraf.

He also appealed to the people to follow social distancing and follow lockdown rules and regulations.

Be safe and stay at home. If these are followed, then we may defeat COVID-19 crisis and our lives will be saved, he added.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)