Production of Covid-19 PPE for Frontline Health Workers and The University of Port Harcourt Community

The COVID-19 virus has been spreading across the globe since late 2019. Originally it was slower to reach Nigeria and Rivers State in particular, but advance more rapidly in 2020, and severely affected patients with difficulty breathing. Most rontline healthcare workers lack Personal Protective Equipment (PPE's) and ventilators are in extremely short supply in University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and Lulu-Briggs Health Center. Our aim is to launch a wide-spread response and produce PPEs applying the 3D printing technology for the COVID-19 pandemic in University of Port Harcourt and Rivers State at large. Two Thousand (2000) face-shields were printed with University of Port Harcourt inscription on it and were distributed across the various health facilities in Rivers State, Nigeria and particularly, the University of Port Harcourt Community. One Hundred (50) N-95 Nose mask was also printed and distributed accordingly. Local production of PPE will protect health care workers and patients (University of Port Harcourt staff and students), improve delivery time and availability, reduce the spread of virus and save lives in our university community.

Key Words: COVID-19, PPE, Pandemic, Healthcare, Frontline, University, Port Harcourt