A Novel Combinatorial Shield Design for Eye and Face Protection in COVID-19
Abstract The World Health Organization emphasized the importance of goggles and face shields for protection of medical personnel at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unsurprisingly, almost all countries suffered from a critical supply shortage of goggles and face shields, as well as many other types of personal protective equipment (PPE), for a long period, owing to the lack of key medical material supplies and the inefficiency of existing fabrication methods arising from the need to avoid crowds during the outbreak of COVID-19. In this context, we propose a novel combined shield design for eye and face protection that can be rapidly fabricated using three-dimensional printing technology. The designed prototype eye–face shield is accessible to the general public , offering more possibilities for yield improvement in PPE during emergent infectious disease events such as COVID-19.