Photo: Courtesy of Nippon Paint

By February 24, 3,387 health workers in 476 hospitals across China had been infected with the coronavirus and more than 90 percent of them were in Hubei, a media conference held by the WHO-China Joint Mission on novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) was told. As monetary donations and medical supplies pour into the frontline to save vulnerable health workers from the plight of insufficient protection against the virus, research institutes and companies around the world have been working to develop preventative countermeasures and protective solutions, hoping to end the epidemic or at least allow frontline health workers to be better protected.

On March 1, Nippon Paint China and Corning donated 5 million yuan ($714,000) worth of Nippon Paint Antivirus Kids Paint (specially produced for frontline hospital use and not available in the market) to four Hubei coronavirus-designated hospitals with a total area of 120,000 square meters. In this product, Nippon Paint adopted Corning Guardiant™ Antimicrobial Particles, an emerging technology from Corning, one of the world's leading innovators in materials science. Nippon Paint hopes this anti-viral coating can help frontline health workers by offering an additional layer of protection against the coronavirus.

The four hospitals that received Nippon Paint's coatings are Xiangyang No. 1 People's Hospital, Xiangyang Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Hospital, Xiangyang Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Suixian People's Hospital.

Both the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and its US counterpart have declared that it is possible for a person to contract COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their mouth, nose, or eyes. Experts estimate that coronaviruses can live up to nine days on a surface depending on environmental conditions and the type of surface. With no vaccines or cures identified, the best way to combat this epidemic is through prevention, which includes disinfecting surfaces in hospitals, medical centers, offices, homes and elsewhere.

Scientific studies classify viruses into three major groups based on their structure and resistance to disinfectants: enveloped viruses (e.g. HIV, hepatitis B, influenza A, which are very sensitive to disinfectants); large non-enveloped viruses (e.g. adenovirus and rotavirus, which are moderately resistant to disinfectants); and small non-enveloped viruses (e.g. poliovirus, norovirus/feline calicivirus, which are highly resistant to disinfectants). Non-enveloped viruses can survive on surfaces for several weeks and are considered harder to kill than enveloped viruses.

Nippon Paint started to work with Corning on anti-virus coatings in June 2019. Nippon Paint's Antivirus Kids Paint, an innovative product combining Corning Guardiant™ Antimicrobial Particles and Nippon Paint kids paint, was tested by Microchem Laboratory, an accredited, independent laboratory in the US on January 29, 2020. The results show that the paint inactivates more than 99.9 percent of the feline calicivirus on its surface. Feline calicivirus has been approved by the EPA to replace human norovirus for detection. The coating also kills more than 99.99 percent of harmful bacteria, including staphylococcus aureus, escherichia coli and pseudomonas aeruginosa under the latest test protocols that mimic contamination in everyday, indoor environments. Nippon Paint Kids Paint is environmentally friendly and TÜV and Greenguard certified. 

Eric Chung, president of Nippon Paint China, said: "Nippon Paint has always tried to push beyond the limits in the coating industry, developing sustainable products backed up with constant technological innovation. The coronavirus outbreak has prompted us once again to be highly innovative, and we are happy to work jointly with Corning at this particular time to complete the development, tests and production of the antivirus coating. We trust that our effort will give frontline healthcare professionals valuable support as they fight the virus."

Dr Joydeep Lahiri, division vice president and program director, specialty surfaces, said: "We believe the paint created by Nippon Paint using Corning Guardiant™ Antimicrobial Particles can offer an additional layer of protection by reducing the risk of infection from viruses on the painted surfaces of hospitals and medical centers."

When the coronavirus outbreak was first reported, Nippon Paint China donated 2 million yuan to the Red Cross Society in XianNing, Hubei Province to support its containment. The group also took part in building Zhuhai and Dongguan Xiaotangshan Hospitals. Nippon Paint believes that by giving health workers better protection when it is most needed, they can fight the coronavirus with greater confidence, and that together we will win the battle against the virus.