JOHOR BARU: Every day at the Malaysian Red Crescent (MRC) headquarters training room, here, 10 volunteers are hard at work making plastic face shields for medical frontliners in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Slogging away from morning to evening, these volunteers do not take a day off, churning out about 700 face shields daily.
The shields are distributed to the various hospitals where victims of the novel coronavirus infection are being treated.
The shields are part of the personal protective equipment (PPE) used by frontliners in handling Covid-19 cases.
These shields can only be used once and must be discarded after that.
Velasamy S. Pillai, deputy chairman of Johor Baru MRC, said the volunteers make between 700-800 face shields per day.
“These volunteers are all adults and following a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, MRC has nevertheless managed to recruit a number of them to assist in making face shields,” he said, adding that they were trained before being put to work.
Irene Chan, a volunteer who has been assisting in the task, said hospitals and health departments were facing a major shortage of face shields.
“We will continue making these shields to keep them healthy. If they are healthy, they can protect us,” she said.
In just a few days, Chan and her team of volunteers had produced almost 5,200 face shields. These were distributed to at least three hospitals and the state health department.
Cheng Yang, another volunteer, said the team worked daily for seven hours to ensure they could keep up with their target.
He said once completed, the shields were packed and sent to the Sultanah Aminah Hospital, Permai Hospital, Sultan Ismail Hospital and the Johor Health Department.
“We provide a larger quantity to the Sultanah Aminah Hospital as they handle Covid-19 cases,” he said.
Cheng said 300 to 500 pieces were sent there every week.
He said the materials to make the shields were sponsored by manufacturers and others were purchased from cash donations through public contributions.
Cheng also said the shields were sanitised before being sent to hospitals.
“We are leveraging on our skills and knowledge to ensure the equipment are produced in a short time,” he said.
Johor Baru MRC Chairman Chong Ah Ng told the NST that they were responding to the call by their headquarters in Kuala Lumpur to support the frontliners in Johor.
“We know there is a great demand for face shields so we gathered some volunteers to assist us in the making of face shields,” he said, adding that it was a golden opportunity for the volunteers to learn the trade.
