These personal protection have been distributed to associations and centres for vulnerable people from the province of Valencia, with the aim at stopping the spread of coronavirus.
Professors from the School of Engineering (ETSE), the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Universitat de València are coordinating a citizen project for the fabrication of Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) that are being distributed to disadvantaged collectives.
The initiative was born during the first week of the declaration of the alert state in Spain due to the Covid-19 crisis, when many heads of service of public and private hospitals in Valencia, concerned about the shortage of PPEs, turned to the Universitat de València for the reliability and trustworthiness of the institution demonstrated on previous occasions.
Thus, the academic institution is asked to coordinate different citizen initiatives for the fabrication of PPEs such as protective masks and face shields with 3D printers.
Concerning masks, a project for the coordination and delivery of protective masks has been carried out. It is addressed to disadvantaged collectives and defenceless staff in subsidised and determined centres by the Valencian Ministry for Equality and Inclusive Policies.
For the fabrication of such masks, the UV had the aid of the stitchers network from the "Asociación de mujeres rurales, Hilando Vidas (sector Bugarra, Los Serranos)" and the stitchers group from "Valencia Cose", located in the city centre of Valencia.
In total, several thousand masks for the Ángel Tomás Solidarity Initiative Foundation (FISAT), the Centre for Care of Minors CAM1 and CAM2 in Mislata, Residential Centre for Seniors Entre Naranjos in Ribarroja, Probation centre "Colonia San Vicente Ferrer" in Godella and "Valencia Inclou", a project that handles migrants in vulnerability situation, which relies on the Valencian City Council and is managed by Amigò Foundation.
As long as the project was going on and was consolidating, the complexity of the PPEs has been increasing, from the initial cotton masks to the current manufactured with polypropylene textiles, in accordance with the recommendations of the Valencian Ministry for Public Health from the Valencian government.
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