Varanasi, Apr 30 (IANS): The Malviya Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (MCIIE) at the IIT-BHU has developed an ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) system, which has been installed at the Covid-19 lab of the BHU Hospital for sanitisation.

Prof P.K. Mishra, project coordinator, said, "Realising the urgent need to develop low-cost, multi-purpose instruments for effective sanitisation amid the coronavirus pandemic, the MCIIE came up with this ready-to-use UVC-based product. The centre has developed a wide range of UVC systems and our advanced systems assure elimination of biological contaminants, like viruses, bacteria, spores and allergens, by effectively treating moving air with UVC radiation."

As per the latest research, UVC light-based sterilizer can kill a range of micro-organisms, like viruses (including SARS syndrome, coronavirus and Nipah virus) and bacteria in a short time.

The system has a series of UV lamps (depending upon size of place of installation), each having 22 watts capacity.

According to Mishra, any virus can be deactivated up to 99 per cent by the UVGI dose of 2,400 microwatt sec/cm square. This system can produce UVGI dose of more than 2,400 microwatt sec/cm square to ensure complete inactivation of coronavirus.

It also works on auto timer and its visual red/green indicator ensures safety of the user against the UV dose.

The system can be used in hospitals, operation theatres, ICUs and IVF labs, microbiological labs, special wards, dental facilities, laboratories, pharmaceutical units and patient care wards.