DICON produces PPE kits, hand sanitizers and ventilators to support FG’s war against COVID-19 pandemic

 

THE Nigerian Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has disclosed that the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) has taken the lead among others, to provide a local content driven response to address the shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in Nigeria in the ongoing fight against the spread of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

This, the Defence Headquarters said was in response to directive by Abayomi  Olonisakin, a General and Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) to the Armed Forces to articulate strategic intervention to support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a series of tweets on its verified Twitter handle, the DHQ revealed that the DICON, under the  leadership of Victor Ezugwu, a Major General, has mobilized its management and staff to research, develop  and produce several COVID-19 essential and life saving equipment.

“First is the production of over 1500 dozens of DICSanz, a high-quality hand sanitizer produced under very strict environmental conditions, requested by the COAS Lt Gen TY Buratai for supply to troops of the Nigerian Army,” it said.

“This product is at the last stage of NAFDAC registration in line with extant due diligence provisions.”

The DHQ further stated that the DICON has also responded to the directive by Bashir Magashi, the Minister of Defence  for the Armed Forces to support the indigenous capacity of Nigeria to support the indigenous capacity of Nigeria, to support medical workers by producing thousands  thousands of high quality non permeable Personal Protective Equipment kit.

Each unit of the kits consists of standardized gowns, face shield and nose masks, it said.

The kits, the DHQ explained are currently being produced in large quantities for use by Kaduna State Government and other national stakeholders.

In addition to that, it added that the DICON engineers, consultants and medical teams have successfully produced a digital mechanical ventilator known as DICOVENT.

The newly designed low-cost machine is a simple mechanical ventilator that can deliver positive pressured ventilation using a volume-controlled ventilation (VCV) system, the DHQ said.

” The ventilator has undergone thorough scrutiny and assessment by specialists from top ranging hospitals and experts in the country including Cedar Crest Hospital Abuja, 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital Kaduna among others.”

“It  is important to mention that while DICOVENT may not be able to meet the high demands of critical patients, it can be used for Continuous Mandatory Ventilation (CMV) and Intermittent Positive Pressure Ventilation ( IPPV). It can also be used for invasive ventilation and non-invasive ventilation using an endotracheal tube and mask respectively.“

Meanwhile, the DHQ stated that Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 and Osagie Ehanire, the Minister of Health  have commended and approved these equipment produced by DICON.

The CDS according to the tweets therefore directed all the Armed Forces to liaise with DICON for mass production of all prototypes of COVID-19 PPEs for national application.

” As DICON and other military institutions continue their drive to support our national effort to defeat COVID-19, the CDS hereby urges Federal and State Governments to patronize the local content initiative of the Armed Forces of Nigeria,” it said.