3 April 2020: As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to raise its ugly head across the globe, the demand for medical supplies, masks and other essential commodities continues to increase exponentially.
Accordingly, the demand for EU recognised isolation pod Epishuttle has also increased by about 18 times in past two weeks. To meet this demand, EpiGuard has increased the production manifold.
As the current demand is witnessing a world crisis, EpiGuard's mission is to save the patients while protecting everyone else. In a public statement, CEO of EpiGuard, Ellen Cathrine Andersen said:
"The pandemic puts healthcare systems all over the world under major pressure. Without single-patient isolation, health care workers and other patients are at increased risk of catching the virus. The EpiShuttle was singled out by the EU as one of the key technological advancements to improve patient safety during pandemics like the outbreak of the coronavirus. Safe transport of infected patients is essential to maximize our healthcare systems' capacity.
The EpiShuttle opens up for patient transport by ambulance helicopter. Until now, this has been challenging given the risk of contamination to crews. Single-patient isolation pods also allow patients to receive necessary treatment during transport, while reducing the need for disinfection of ambulances, helicopters and planes between every patient. It takes 2-4 hours to disinfect an ambulance.
During this time, the ambulance is not able to perform other critical duties, experience from training shows that health care workers are at greater risk of making mistakes when working with full protective gear. Single patient isolation units such as the EpiShuttle allow health care workers to perform necessary treatment of the patients and allow them to wear a minimum of protective gear. This improves the efficiency of caretakers, especially during longer transports between countries and hospitals."