Health Ministry Disproves Use Of “Disinfection Boxâ€, Says It’s Not Effective Against Covid-19
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The Health Ministry has disproved the use of disinfection boxes as a countermeasure to the coronavirus disease.
This comes after Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) announced that they had designed an automated disinfection chamber to help frontliners fight Covid-19.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah explained that the chamber works by spraying chemicals on an individual inside the chamber for up to 30 seconds.
However, based on the Ministry’s evaluation of the method, there is no evidence to prove that such devices work as claimed. In fact, the chemicals used could be dangerous to their users.
According to Dr Noor Hisham, the ministry had received a number of applications to evaluate the use of disinfection boxes (or chamber, tunnel, booth, partition, gate, etc) against Covid-19 since the method had reportedly been in use in several countries.
Therefore, the ministry’s technology evaluation branch conducted assessments on a few models from various countries and the ones in Malaysia.
Based on the evaluation conducted so far, we find out that there is no proof to show that the models are effective in reducing the infection of Covid-19.
Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah via Malay Mail
Based on a post by the ministry on their Twitter account, their findings revealed that the time frame of 20 – 30 seconds of chemical spray was not sufficient for effective disinfection. They also pointed out that the method did not remove the virus from infected individuals.
Lastly, the chemicals used in the method could damage mucous membranes in the human body, such as found in the eyes, mouth, and skin.
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