BENGALURU: The department of science and technology (DST), on Monday said that a technology developed by an incubatee company of Scitech Park , Pune has emerged as an effective solution for India’s fight against Covid-19 by reducing the viral load of infected areas within a room significantly within an hour."DST has released Rs 1 crore to manufacture and scale up the product, and 1,000 of them will soon be ready for installation in various hospitals in Maharashtra. JCLEAN Weather TECHNOLOGIES, a Pune based company, is manufacturing the product," DST said.The negative ion generator titled Scitech Airon helps to control the virus, bacteria, and fungal infections in a closed environment, and, could clean up the air and disinfect areas which are exposed to the infection through Covid-19 positive cases and suspects."Hence it could ensure that the well-being of the staff, doctors, and nurses who are working round the clock in the quarantine facilities by enhancing their disease resistance power and ability to fight the virus," DST added.Its usefulness in disabling disease-causing viruses and bacteria has been scientifically tested by various globally renowned labs in different types of closed environments like houses, hospitals, schools, farms, industries, and so on, the DST said.One hour of operation of Ion generator machine reduces viral load within a room by 99.7% depending on room size.Last week, TOI had reported that a device designed by a scientist in Bengaluru has the potential to contain the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes Covid-19, and it will be soon tested for efficacy in the US and Mexico.Rajah Vijay Kumar’s creation, Scalene Hypercharge Corona Canon (SHYCOCAN), pumps out a large number of highly charged electrons in the air with the aim of disrupting the virus’s mechanism to infect people. Essentially, it creates an electric field which interferes with an important process of the virus, checking its ability to cause Covid-19.The Scitech Airon ionizer machine also generates negatively charged ions, which form clusters around microparticles and render them inactive through a chemical reaction.