ANU helps make protective equipment for health workers

The Australian National University (ANU) is helping to ensure health workers have adequate supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) amid the coronavirus pandemic, by coordinating the production of thousands of face shields and masks. The ANU MakerSpace has produced 2,000 face shields, and is preparing to make another 15,000 as required. They have also created a prototype face mask that volunteers are sewing and returning to ANU to be sterilised and made ready for use by people working in non-frontline health services, such as pathology labs. They have enough volunteers and materials to make about 2,000 face masks. Dr John Debs, who is the founder of the MakerSpace, said the PPE would be provided to health workers in the ACT and NSW free of charge. "We see this as a community good from the University to supplement the usual supply chain of hospitals, general practices and other frontline health services," said Dr Debs from the ANU Research School of Physics. "We had heard buzz around people 3D printing face shields but, after looking at the designs, we knew we could make them faster and more effectively with other tools.