Assam liquor firms follow Shane Warne, make sanitisers

Guwahati: Cricket legend Shane Warne has inspired generations in the game of cricket, but he had never thought that some day he would motivate Assam’s Excise department to rope in liquor companies to manufacture alohol-based hand sanitisers for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
When the state Health department informed that there was an acute shortage of hand sanitisers and protective masks, the Excise department came out with an idea to engage the liquor manufacturers to produce it, as medical grade sanitisers contain 70 per cent alcohol.
“In this regard, the Excise department took a cue from the laudable initiative taken by the Australian cricket legend Shane Warne owned liquor company, which stopped manufacturing gin and started producing hand sanitisers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Assam Excise minister Parimal Suklabaidya told PTI here.
Last month, Shane Warne had announced that his firm ‘SevenZeroEight Gin’ started producing medical grade hand sanitisers, having 70 per cent alcohol, for two Western Australian hospitals.
The worldwide crisis caused by COVID-19 has paralysed normal life in the country and Assam is no exception, the minister said.
“There was a big demand for hand sanitisers, but the state has been witnessing a shortage of quality sanitisers,” In order to make quality hand sanitisers available to the public free of cost, the Health department had requested the Excise department to explore the possibility of involving the liquor companies to produce ethanol-based sanitisers based on the guidelines of the World Health Organisation. (PTI)