Makers fabricate much-needed face shields for healthcare frontliners

Lee demonstrating how the face shield is used at SGH yesterday.

By Peter Sibon

KUCHING, Mar 28: Kuching 3D Makers’ Group will be distributing their own 3D-printed face shields to the front liners at the Covid-19 Test Centre at the Youth and Sports Centre tomorrow.

Kuching 3D Makers’ Group’s spokesman Geoffrey Lee said that they decided to assist healthcare frontliners after reading reports from DayakDaily that medical personnel manning the Covid-19 Test Centre at the Youth and Sport Centre did not have enough face shields to protect themselves against the deadly virus.

“We decided to take the initiative to help out after reading DayakDaily’s report that there are not enough face shields used by health personnel at the Kuching Youth Centre,” Lee told DayakDaily today.

According to him, each face shield will take about five hours to print.

“It’s time consuming to print them but we have members who are willing to help out during this trying time,” he said.

Lee said, all the materials used were imported from China and that they were lucky to have bought them before the pandemic.

“The face shields we produced are reusable and offer higher, better protection to our frontliners. The material used can be disinfected quickly and the transparent sheet can be replaced without the need of punching any holes, saving time for the nurses at the hospitals,” he said.

As volunteers, his group will get the necessary funding from well-wishers to help in their initiative to provide face shields to those who really need them.

Besides Lee, other members of the group are Akmal Hakim Sazali, Dalvin Chung, Sim Siang Kwang, Mohd Nazirul, Pung Tiong Seng and Annabelle Chai.

Yesterday, the group distributed 20 face shields to the Kuching Polyclinic at Jalan Masjid, 10 to the Infectious Diseases Unit at Sarawak General Hospital (SGH), 10 to hoteliers and 20 to the police and army personnel manning the roadblocks.

Lee said, currently there are many 3D designers throughout Sarawak who could produce a similar product. —DayakDaily