Makeshift face shield for healthcare professionals during the COVID‐19 pandemic

The world is currently going through an arduous time owing to the COVID‐19 pandemic. Correct personal protective equipment (PPE) must be used by health care professionals when dealing with patients infected with this virus.¹ An important part of the PPE kit includes a proper, full body gown and a face shield that covers the front and sides of the face. However, owing to the sudden surge in demand for PPE because of COVID‐19, there is a dire shortage in almost all countries.² Although there is more availability of disposable/nondisposable isolation gowns, face shields are in extremely short supply.

We have tried to overcome the problem of face shields by using transparent sheets of the type usually used in overhead projectors or any other transparent sheets of appropriate size (Fig. 1a). Holes are punched close to one end of the sheet using a paper punch (Fig. 1b). A string is passed through these holes with enough string left on either side for tying (Fig. 1c). The free ends of the string are tied around the head and the string is further secured by paper surgical tape (Fig. 1d). This provides adequate protection for the eyes and the face. Obviously, it is not an alternative to proper face shields but can be very useful as an emergency backup and for resource‐poor settings.

Figure 1.

(a) Materials required to make the face shield; (b) holes are punched into the transparent sheet using a paper punch; (c) string is passed through the holes; (d) the finished face shield tied over the head and affixed with surgical tape.