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As part of Nissan South Africa’s continued support to combat COVID-19, Nissan announced on Wednesday, the donation of eight more INTUboxes to Gauteng hospitals, protecting doctors and nurses from infection during the third wave. The innovative product is being produced at Nissan’s Rosslyn plant.
“We’re grateful for the opportunity to play our part in supporting health care professionals during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout lockdown, we reviewed our processes and capabilities to see how Nissan could make a meaningful contribution. The INTUboxes represent life-saving protective equipment for health workers who have already shown enormous courage and resilience in the face of this virus,” says Wonga Mesatywa, Executive Director, Corporate Affairs at Nissan South Africa.
The INTUbox is a transparent vessel-box which protects health care professionals while intubating and treating acutely ill COVID-19 patients. The INTUbox prevents viral droplets spreading to the attending health professionals by containing droplets inside the box, significantly reducing the risk of exposure. Intubation usually results in a high generation of infectious aerosol droplets, and the INTUboxes retain these aerosols in the box and prevent them from spreading. They are equipped with HEPA-filter exhaust tubes which clear the contaminated air.
These boxes were manufactured at Nissan’s Rosslyn facility under the guidance of the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Health Sciences. Fifteen boxes were donated last year to Steve Biko Academic Hospital and Tshwane District Hospital. The eight boxes now available will be donated to Kalafong Hospital and Tembisa Hospitals. Each box is able to treat one patient at a time and can be reused after cleaning and disinfecting.
“The Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Pretoria is really proud to be involved in the process of designing the INTUboxes, in our quest to find solutions that help protect healthcare workers while dealing with COVID-19 in the process. This is an ongoing collaboration with Nissan and we hope that the private sector will be inspired to Pay-It-Forward in the current pandemic” shared Prof Tiaan de Jager, Dean at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria.
Nissan said it is committed to supporting hospitals to contain COVID-19 The boxes are complex to produce, requiring assembly lines to be retooled, and workers have donated their own time to produce the boxes.
