China donates RD $ 1 MM to INTEC to manufacture fans
SANTO DOMINGO. -With the purpose of contribute with the indispensable and necessary efforts of the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) to face the pandemic of the COVID-19 by manufacturing mechanical fans low cost, the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the country donated one million pesos to the academic entity, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic.
On the occasion of the commemoration of the second anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with China, Zhang Run, Chinese ambassador to the Dominican Republic, made the donation to the president of INTEC, Rolando M. Guzmán.
In his speech, the Rector of INTEC thanked the donation for considering it as a gesture of brotherhood and solidarity of the Chinese people with the Dominican people, with the university simply serving as a channel of channeling. He also indicated that it is an attitude that is always valued, but that has a special value in the present circumstances in which it serves to save lives.
Meanwhile, the Ambassador of the Republic of China in the country referred to the new anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our country and the eastern nation, and thanked the Dominican government for its adherence to the one-China policy. As for the donation, he recalled that it follows a bonding path that includes the establishment of the Confucius Institute, at INTEC, as a space for cultural rapprochement between the two peoples.
Additionally, the Chinese government is assisting the INTEC technical team with the import procedures for parts for the equipment, which will allow respiratory assistance to COVID-19 patients in the country.
The altruistic gesture of the government of the People's Republic of China joins a set of collaborative initiatives, such as the signing of an agreement between INTEC and the Ministry of Public Health for the manufacture of 100 mechanical ventilators, which will also join another 100 units that INTEC is financing with resources collected through other donations from members of its academic community, and another 100 units in progress with its own resources for a total of 300 fans.
The university is manufacturing mechanical ventilators or Ambu (Airway Mask Bag Unit, in English) to alleviate the needs of the Dominican health system in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. These mechanical respirators are non-invasive devices designed to support the assisted breathing of a patient who is still conscious, and help reduce the effort required to breathe for a certain time.
The Ambu respirator manufactured by INTEC is based in part on the model of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) called E-VENT (authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, of the United States) and whose drawings were released as Open Source .
In addition, it has a pressure regulator, in order to control the appropriate pressures to avoid lung injuries; a tidal volume control, which allows it to adapt to different types of patients, both children and adults; a respiratory rate control, to auto couple with the patient; and an adapter for connection to an oxygen tank to mix the air with oxygen.
The respirator has been considered functional after verifying that the equipment provides the benefits of the technical sheet for which it was designed. For tests of functionality and patient coupling, they were carried out in two aspects, the first, in a simulated and controlled manner at the INTEC Clinical Simulation Laboratories, and the second, was performed in humans at a health center in this capital, and in the Marcelino Vélez Santana hospital, the latter supervised by the Minister of Public Health.