The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that there has been a major drop in economic activity and there is concern that the virus could spread when people are in close proximity.
This has prompted measures like the rotation of the public service, the closing of schools and public transportation at reduced capacity.
The CEO of Joint Medical Products Caribbean Ltd Alfred Lousaing believes his company has what is necessary to return some level of normalcy by increasing safety through the use of Far UVC (ultraviolet C) light to enhance service and offerings including to be used as a tourism marketing tool and to help restart schools in an era of COVID-19.
In an interview with the Sunday Business Guardian Lousaing indicated that his company is currently doing work in countries like Jamaica and Barbados, where, “that’s going to be part of their marketing strategy going out in their documentation for tourism—that “all of our rooms are UV protected,” and people know about UV all over the world.”
For an investment of $15,000 to $20,000 per unit, Lousaing noted that a company can have the assurance, based on scientific evidence that the Far UVC light (that installs like a smoke detector) will sanitise and sterilise all surfaces and the air in a space ranging from 50 to 100 square feet.
Lousaing admitted, “I am not selling a mask or a pair of gloves or a Lysol kit. I am selling a product to, in actual fact, continuously stop the virus in its tracks for both airborne and hard surfaces.”
When asked the question of why someone would purchase a $15,000 light as opposed to $100 bottle of Lysol or any other brand, he said “because it’s continuous destruction of the COVID-19 virus.”
Lousaing said that canned sanitisers will only work when it is sprayed. He added that the reason why he has partnered and signed contracts with two international companies (one of them being General Electric) is to cater for mistakes that people make.
He articulated, “The objective of this development is because of human error. This is why all the technology is developing consistently. The future of the world is going to be technology.”
Lousaing said that future would not be comprised of people using canned sanitisers to give confidence that 100 per cent of a space is clean because there are only “so many places that one can spray.
He gave the example of going to use an ATM machine. The user of the ATM does not see anyone in the space there spraying or fogging the area before it is used. The user also does not know if the person in front of them or the person that used the machine before had COVID-19 or not.
“But they have just used the machine in front of you, that you have gone and put your card in, innocently not knowing anything and you get COVID-19 now, because they had it on their hands or wherever,” said Lousaing.
The bottom line of UV sterilisation, Lousaing said is that its protects the inhabitants of the space in which it is installed, 24/7. He noted, “So every surface in there is being sterilised at all times.”
Lousaing said his company has just started its marketing strategy to work with the banks. The company, he said is installing the Far UVC lights right now in elevators.
According to Lousaing, the other Far UVC company that he has partnered with has just signed contracts with the US army, and they also have US Universities using their products lines now as preparations are being made for schools to reopen.
With regard to local education, Lousaing indicated that he is currently in talks with the National Maintenance Training and Security Company (MTS) team to prepare to install these devices in educational facilities in T&T.
Lousaing expressed that his company has just sent the documentation to the Minister of Education’s COVID-19 committee. He said, “We are hoping that good sense would prevail but as I told the Minister, once you are interested in anything, you don’t have to sign a PO (purchase order).”
He added, “I don’t want you to sign a PO to say that you are committed. I want you to do a letter on your letter head, and say that the Ministry of Education is interested in the UV lights and these are the quantity of schools and these are the plans of the roll out. I said I will get the finance for you if that’s the issue because IMF and World Bank and everybody else has particular funds, sitting for education.”
Lousaing also disclosed that his company sells UVC robots, an automated unit that will sanitise spaces without the presence of humans, as the power of the UVC in these machines can be damaging to an individual’s health.
These UVC High machines are manufactured in Belgium, Lousaing said and the sell for €78,000. According to Lousaing, the COVID-19 pandemic has created a number of challenges for the world to say the least.
He admitted that there is no doubt that social distancing, frequent hand washing, and mask wearing decreases the risk of transmission of the virus.