The product is a being produced under its faculty Chemistry and Biology sciences laboratory.

MZUNI Vice chancellor Professor John Kalenga Saka said the Coronavirus pandemic requires a holistic approach hence the institutions move to also respond in time.

“The coronavirus problem is biological in nature and as an academic institution we thought we should make use of our ideas in science technology and innovations to come up with a quality formulation based on World Health Organization WHO recommendations and Malawi Bureau of Standards to come up with the product.”

Saka however said the product has been produced from the resources that the university has but said more support is needed to produce more volumes.

“We have a team already in place but what we need is support in raw material to produce a larger volume of the product. We are a social service and we realize that the need is huge therefore we have to reach out to many.”

Tuesday the institution donated over 2000 of the produced hand sanitizers to Mzuzu prison, police and Mzuzu city council which will further distribute to vulnerable communities as way of ensuring they practice good personal hygiene and stay safe from catching the virus.

Meanwhile at Mzuzu prison where some of the MZUNI hand sanitizers have been donated prison authorities say they are working without personal protective equipment apart from the water buckets that have been placed outside and inside the prison fence.

“We are grateful for the sanitizers, the prison is amongst the most at risk places in regard to the coronavirus threat. Although government is decongesting the cells but we still receive new entrants on daily basis from the outside world which puts us and the inmates at risk,” said Macbeth Wasambo Mzuzu prison spokeperson.

Currently Mzuzu city COVID-19 response committee has projected that 13,000 people in Mzuzu are at risk of contracting the coronavirus if no stringent measures are taken to contain it. Mzuzu has a population of over 230, 000.