Although it would usually be the beginnings of the back-to-school season, parents and children across the country are left with uncertainty as to whether or not schools will be opening their doors. The Trump administration is making a push to reopen schools to full capacity in the fall. Some health experts agree as many schools overseas have opened, but others in the health industry do not agree with the reopening. The concern is while children have a lower risk of contracting COVID-19, masks and social distancing measures may not be enough to control the spread of the disease should asymptomatic students encounter adults once they are away from school.
If masks and social distancing aren’t enough to prevent the spread of COVID-19, what measures can we take instead?
Making Schools, Office Buildings, and Malls Safer with Air Filtration
According to a report by the Inside Edition, one way to make schools safer is to install high- efficiency air filters in the air handling units and by using stand-alone room air purifiers with HEPA filters as a supplement. The COVID-19 virus primarily spreads through infected respiratory droplets and possibly through droplet nuclei and aerosols, which are much smaller and lighter and can therefore, remain airborne for longer periods of time. Without proper air filtration, it’s possible these aerosols can get caught in the return of an HVAC system and recirculate into other parts of the building, thus spreading the infection further.
“If a building’s ventilation system has the capacity, Camfil air filtration experts recommend an air filter labeled as a MERV-15A or MERV-16A. Unfortunately, some equipment is unable to accommodate the larger size of those filters. In those cases, a basic guideline would be to install the highest MERV-A that infrastructure can handle,” says Greg Herman, Camfil’s National Accounts Segment Manager.
About Camfil Clean Air Solutions
For more than half a century, Camfil worldwide has been helping people breathe cleaner air. As a leading manufacturer of premium clean air solutions, we provide commercial and industrial systems for air filtration and air pollution control that improve worker and equipment productivity, minimize energy use, and benefit human health and the environment. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Camfil has been applying their decades of experience in biosafety containment, healthcare, and other sectors of the air filtration industry to provide technological solutions for the public as well as in hospitals and healthcare facilities.
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