Run Out of Hand Sanitisers Amid Lockdown? Learn How to Make One at Home with This Step-by-step DIY Guide

The World Health Organization (WHO) and doctors across the world advice people to wash hands at regular intervals with soap for at least 20 seconds to keep coronavirus at bay. As there is no vaccine or medicine for the cure of COVID-19, precaution is the only way to protect ourselves and also prevent the spread of novel coronavirus.

Medics also suggest that if it is not possible to wash hands with soap, one should use hand sanitizers having over 60 per cent alcohol.

The use of sanitizers is mainly recommended for essential service providers like police, healthcare professionals and essential commodities providers who can’t stay indoors during coronavirus lockdown.

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise, people have resorted to panic buying of essentials, including hand sanitizers and face masks, emptying many supermarkets.

Due to hoarding, medical stores and supermarkets have run out of supplies of sanitizers. In an attempt to tackle the shortage of santizers, several organisations and medics have offered ways to prepare it at home.

Preparing sanitizer at home is not a tedious and costly process. It can be manufactured using easily available items like isopropyl alcohol (99 per cent), aloe vera gel (92 per cent), essential oils, plastic bottles, basic funnel and nitrile gloves.

Steps to make sanitizer at home

Step 1: Pour aloe vera gel and isopropyl alcohol into a bowl. In order to keep the alcohol content at more than 60 per cent, people are advised to maintain a 2:1 ratio of isopropyl alcohol to aloe vera gel.

Step 2: If you need a good smell, you can also add a few drops of essential oils, compounds extracted from plants and capture plant’s scent, to the mixture of aloe vera gel and isopropyl alcohol.

Step 3: Stir the mixture using a spoon and pour it into plastic bottles using funnel. Don’t forget to wear gloves during the manufacturing process.

Step 4: Hand sanitizer is ready to use. But it should be used when soap or hand wash is not available.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hand sanitizers that meet the alcohol volume requirement help reduce the number of microbes on a person’s hands quickly. It can also kill various disease causing pathogens, including coronavirus, present on hands