Coronavirus pandemic: the CAU is helping - an internal call for donations of medical resources

As part of the fight against the new coronavirus, the CAU's University Board is calling out to all institutions, institutes and departments to donate medical resources. This is the result of a request for help from the City of Kiel. Hospitals, emergency services, doctor’s surgeries and nursing homes currently have extreme shortages of resources. This places patients, residents and medical or nursing staff at risk. Items which are urgently needed include raw materials for disinfectants, protective face masks and gowns. The University Board is therefore asking for your help. You can donate resources which are currently not urgently required for campus operations, teaching and research, which you can therefore spare.

Last week, the Institute of Organic Chemistry donated 50 litres of isopropanol and 100 litres of ethanol to the chemist’s at the University Medical Centre Schleswig-Holstein (UK-SH). They can use this to mix disinfectants. “The Institute also agreed to store a large delivery of alcohols for the UK-SH in its chemical dispenser because the UK-SH currently has hardly anywhere to correctly store larger quantities of flammable liquids nearby,” said the Head of the Institute, Professor Rainer Herges.

Research divers at the CAU have also contributed towards stabilising Kiel’s healthcare through their personal contacts to China. A former diving student from China sent desperately needed face masks. “We research divers are like a big family. Our former diving student, Huang, spontaneously sent 200 masks to us in Kiel. 50 went straight to a doctor we know. The remaining 150 were handed over to the ASB - the Workers' Samaritan Federation in Kiel,” reported Roland Friedrich from the Institute of Geosciences.

At the same time, Facility Management made do without part of a delivery of disinfectant. 500 litres were forwarded on to the Städtisches Krankenhaus, because they have acute shortages for their patient care. “We used the rest of our order on campus to protect our staff,” explained the Head of Facility Management, Dr Uwe Pfründer.

“We regard donations of medical resources from the University’s stocks which we don't need at the moment for research and teaching as emergency relief. This is why they can currently be forwarded on to other public institutions at no charge until further notice, due to the particular situation we find ourselves in right now,” clarified CAU Chancellor Claudia Ricarda Meyer and CAU President Professor Lutz Kipp. Donations to private institutions and associations must be carried out from private funds. Institutions at the CAU who are willing to donate supplies can obtain more information about what is needed by e-mail to corona@uni-kiel.de.