The First Technical University, located in Ibadan, Oyo State has donated washable face masks to the Oyo State Government to support the state government’s fight against coronavirus.
Prof. Ayobami Salami, the institution’s Vice-Chancellor, who led principal officers of the institution to the Ministry of Health, Secretariat, Ibadan, where the donation was made, said Tech-U’s Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training Centre decided to produce and donate the washable masks as its own contribution to the efforts to curtail the pandemic.
“Immediately the coronavirus became a pandemic, we decided to support the state’s Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) with the design and production of information and awareness materials, as well as ICT support for the emergency operations including surveillance, contact tracing, data analysis and database management.
“Right now, the First Technical University research team is also working towards the production of ventilators. Our belief is that, more than ever before, universities and other higher institutions in Nigeria must be practically and innovatively relevant to the advancement of society,” Salami said.
Dr Bashir Bello, the Oyo State Commissioner for Health, said the masks would prove useful especially with the re-usability factor.
He, therefore, solicited the university’s continuous search for interventions that were evidence-based.
