Many researchers are working on multiple aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic including disease detection, treatment, and vaccine development. It is expected that there will be a large increase in passenger traffic at airports and railway stations and other public places. This paper proposes one solution to reduce the transmission of the disease through fomites such as passenger luggage and packages at bus/train stations and airports in the country. A tunnel system similar to the X-ray machines used for passenger luggage at airports has been proposed for disinfection of fomites. The system consists of eight 36 W T8 TUV bulbs illuminating each square meter area of the fomites on a conveyor belt for 10 s. For the standard airline luggage dimensions, 24 such bulbs will be distributed evenly on all four sides of the tunnel. The entry and exit points on the conveyor are shielded from the UV-C light leakage by placing thin plastic (such as acrylic) curtains. An optional non-foaming soap solution spray system may be used as an additional disinfection step. The toxic sodium hypochlorite solutions are not used in this design. Non-foaming soap solutions which are very effective against coronavirus and are non-toxic and biodegradable may be used as an optional disinfectant. It is to be noted that while the disinfection systems are designed to effectively mitigate the threat of coronavirus on the passenger fomite surfaces, these are purely based on theoretical calculations and have not been tested with actual viral particles. However, considering the time-sensitive emergency with COVID-19 pandemic, these systems will be very useful even without rigorous campaign of testing.
Keywords: COVID-19; Continuous disinfection system; Passenger luggage; UV-C.
© Indian National Academy of Engineering 2020.