FREE SANITIZER, ALCOHOL. A village official in Catbalogan City on Friday (March 20, 2020) receives 10 gallons of moisturized chlorine-based hand sanitizer form the Samar State University. The university said they are formulating hand sanitizer and alcohol for free distribution to households, as an initiative to mitigate the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus disease 2019. (Photo courtesy of SSU)
TACLOBAN CITY – The shortage of disinfectants has prompted the faculty-researchers of the Samar State University (SSU) in Catbalogan City to produce their own hand sanitizer and ethyl alcohol for free distribution to households.
Some seven villages on Friday each received 10 gallons of moisturized chlorine-based hand sanitizer from the research team, the SSU said in a statement.
The village officials of the first batch of recipients will facilitate the distribution of 500 ml of hand sanitizer to each household.
The university said they formulated the hand sanitizer while making ethyl alcohol, which will also be distributed for free, as an initiative to mitigate the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
According to the team of researchers, the production of ethyl alcohol takes seven to 10 days due to the unavailability of ethanol.
On the other hand, the sanitizer can be formulated within a day using distilled and chlorine water, chorine, glycerol, synthetic lemon extract, and pure calamansi crude extract.
The researchers will continue producing hand sanitizer to accommodate more households.
Once already available, ethyl alcohol will also be distributed to the 50 villages of Catbalogan City for free.
“We will be holding the efficient distribution of free ethyl alcohol, so everyone could avail. They just have to provide their own containers,” said Edelyn Echapare, one of the faculty-researchers.
Alongside her are Rezy Mendaño, Ruel Amascual, Diana Shane Balindo, Rhodmar Panis, Jullien May Zartiga, and Angelica Alcantara who all started the alcoholic fermentation, the initial process of making ethyl alcohol, on Thursday.
The SSU said they also accept donations for absolute ethyl alcohol from laboratories, hospitals, and private organizations, which will be diluted to 70 percent alcohol and distributed to more beneficiaries. (PNA)
