{"id":19340,"date":"2020-04-08T09:31:45","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T16:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=19340"},"modified":"2020-04-08T09:31:45","modified_gmt":"2020-04-08T16:31:45","slug":"camosun-contributes-to-covid-19-fight-with-face-shields-sparks-global-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2020\/04\/08\/camosun-contributes-to-covid-19-fight-with-face-shields-sparks-global-interest\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun contributes to COVID-19 fight with face shields, sparks global interest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Camosun Innovates is manufacturing over 9,000 medical-grade face shields for frontline health-care workers as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. The college signed off on the contract with producer AP Plastics on Monday, March 30, and the first batch of the face shields went out to health-care workers on Monday, April 6. The shields span from the user\u2019s forehead to their chest and are made with transparent thermal plastic.<\/p>\n

Camosun Innovates director Richard Gale says that Camosun was able to ramp up production of the masks recently, as well as cut costs from about $15 a shield to $5. Gale says Island Health wants as many masks as Camosun can provide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re able to make about 9,000 locally, in house, and by the time those 9,000 are delivered, AP Plastics will be cranking out their manufacturing to fill the rest of the order for VIHA,\u201d says Gale.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Camosun Innovates’ Applied Research Technologist Matthew Zeleny working on the face shields the college is producing (photo by Camosun College A\/V Services).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The face shields\u2014which can be warn over a mask\u2014will be delivered to Island Health ready to go; all the workers have to do is assemble them. The laser technology used to make the shields is novel, says Gale, adding that this is the kind of work that\u2019s done all the time at Camosun Innovates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s especially gratifying to be able to provide this kind of help to local health authorities,\u201d says Gale. \u201cWe feel like we\u2019re really making a contribution to the efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camosun Innovates is meeting regularly with Island Health, says Gale, to discuss Camosun\u2019s role in the future of the fight against COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a couple of other projects that are in the queue that we\u2019re talking about building for them, but we\u2019re also trying to disseminate this face shield design as broadly as possible so others can start producing more masks,\u201d says Gale. \u201cWe\u2019ve had inquiries from as far away as the United Kingdom. There\u2019s a place in Scotland that\u2019s looking at producing this design in the next few days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gale says the COVID-19 pandemic is \u201cthe kind of thing that you read about in history books\u201d and says the dangers are real.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think any of us ever expected to have to live through something like this,\u201d he says. \u201cThe global health risks are real, especially with increased mobility all around the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gale says technology access centres like Camosun Innovates are well-equipped to help in these circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s COVID-19 becoming quite rampant here in Canada, or whether it\u2019s other kinds of health, safety, or stability problems anywhere else on the globe,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s practical, applied research that\u2019s going to solve the problem, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re good at.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Camosun Innovates is manufacturing over 9,000 medical-grade face shields for frontline health-care workers as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. The college signed off on the contract with producer AP Plastics on Monday, March 30, and the first batch of the face shields went out to health-care workers on Monday, April 6. The shields span from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19342,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19340\/revisions\/19342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}