The employees of the Faculty of Chemistry are supporting Lower Silesian hospitals in the fight against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus epidemic. They have been recently sharing out some of their stocks of disinfectants and laboratory aprons as well as regularly providing masks and protective visors.

Since the very beginning of the epidemic threat in Poland, the Faculty of Chemistry has been actively involved in helping hospitals and medical facilities in Wrocław and other parts of Lower Silesia.

- I cooperate closely with hospitals and doctors from our region (Lower Silesian Oncology Centre in Wrocław, Wrocław Medical University Clinics, and the Hospital in Trzebnica), so as soon as I was informed that they were in need, we started to act - says Professor Piotr Młynarz, responsible for the coordination of faculty-wide actions at W3. - We started with the disinfectants, which we had a supply of. We’ve provided several hospital wards with over 150 litres of such agents as well as our stocks of isopropanol, which is a substance that can be used for disinfecting keyboards, mobile phones, or computer monitors.

Doctors received some of the laboratory aprons from the faculty’s stocks, stored in its warehouse. Besides, Professor Stanisław Bartkiewicz from the Department of Advanced Materials Engineering and Modelling, together with his colleagues, started printing protective visors, which are then distributed across the region and in Wrocław itself together with those produced using 3D printers by the staff of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Following the initiative of Natalia Pudełko, an MSc student under the supervision of Professor Piotr Młynarz who, together with her family, started sewing protective masks with replaceable filters, masks have been sewn and immediately dispatched to a hospital ward.

- When providing all these materials, we met with great kindness on the part of doctors, who had an extensive need for protective measures against the coronavirus, particularly at the beginning of the pandemic - says Professor Piotr Młynarz.

Of course, this is not the end of the activities in which W3 staff are involved, as further actions are planned for the coming days. - Thanks to the kindness and support of the university authorities and the commitment of our employees, Professor Stanisław Bartkiewicz,  Konrad Szustakiewicz PhD, Dsc, and their collaborators, we will soon start mass production of protective visors, in quantities which, I hope, will let meet the needs of both hospitals and Wrocław Medical University - says Professor  Piotr Młynarz. - What’s more, our scientists are acting as advisers. For instance, Professor Marcin Sieńczyk advises on the selection of immunological tests for coronavirus diagnostics.