With news of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) hitting the globe many people have begun to stockpile their homes with supplies that will help them disinfect and prevent the spread of viruses this leads to the rise in the price of sanitizers which have affected the underprivileged society of rural area. Keeping this in mind, department of Microbiology have started making organic hand sanitizer at large scale and distributing to the poorer ones in the villages.

Being the Microbiology department as a community responsibility we made organic hand sanitizers with the following composition

• Aloe Vera Juice – 1000 ml
• Absolute Alcohol – 70%
• Glycerol – 50 ml
• Mineral Oil – 10 ml
• Hydrogen Peroxide – 3%

The bacterial inhibition test was performed with agar disc assay in the order check the efficacy of the sanitizers. The effect on bacterial killing was quite well inhibiting Gram positive as well as Gram negative bacteria. Finally, the solution added into the sprayed bottle and distributed.  

The village nearby the college i.e. Dahli (Lavari) which is adopted by the college NSS unit for most of the awareness programme. The distribution programme was arranged in the village and donated the sanitizer and mask to the community. Team of department of Microbiology, Dr. PS Katkar, Dr. KN Sahare, Prof. GS Ghugare, Lab assistant Mr. PB chalak and Mr. VG Karekar along the with Principal Dr. BM Bahirwar, Prof. PB Ghode, Dr. GS Gond  Dr. SS Dudhe, Dr. AV Nande and Dr. Lalit Dewalkar were present.  During the programme Principal conveyed message for the covid appropriate behavior and all the necessary precaution to be taken.    

The students of Microbiology department have started vaccine awareness drive in 10 villages. They reached to every house and explained the benefits of covid vaccine. They also resolve the myths and facts of vaccines as it was the biggest issue in the village. Vaccines awareness programme by the student has helped the villagers resolving their doubts and encouraged them to inoculate the vaccine. Students have prepared a statistical report of villagers who have taken the vaccine and those not and the reason behind not going for the vaccination. This data helped in making overall situation of vaccination in the villages.