Coronavirus
Technology Solutions
October 14, 2021
Worldwide COVID Deaths Surpass Five Million
Focus on Vaccines for Poorer Nations
Do “DIY Air Purifiers” Work Against COVID-19 In
Schools? Not Exactly, According To Air
Filtration Experts
Pace Analytical Now Can Detect Virus Variants in
Wastewater
Reusable Masks Needed
Filter Solutions
from Parker
FSU Purchases Over Seven Thousand Air Purifiers
USTA Wins Award for Use of Air Filters
_________________________________________________________________________
Worldwide COVID Deaths Surpass Five Million
Worldwide deaths related to COVID-19 surpassed
five million on Friday, according to a Reuters
tally, with unvaccinated people particularly
exposed to the virulent Delta strain.
The variant has exposed the wide disparities
in vaccination rates between rich and poor
nations, and the upshot of vaccine hesitancy in
some western nations.
More than half of all global deaths reported
on a seven-day average were in the United
States, Russia, Brazil, Mexico and India.
While it took just over a year for the COVID-19
death toll to hit 2.5 million, the next 2.5
million deaths were recorded in just under eight
months, according to a Reuters analysis.
An average of 8,000 deaths were reported daily across the
world over the last week, or around five deaths
every minute. However, the global death rate has
been slowing in recent weeks.
Focus on Vaccines for Poorer Nations
There has been increasing focus in recent days
on getting vaccines to poorer nations, where
many people are yet to receive a first dose,
even as their richer counterparts have begun
giving booster shots.
More than half of the world has yet to
receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine,
according to Our World in Data.
A global scheme designed to ensure fair
access to COVID-19 vaccines will this month for
the first time distribute shots only to
countries with the lowest levels of coverage,
the World Health Organization said.
Co-led by the WHO, COVAX has since January
largely allocated doses proportionally among its
140-plus beneficiary states according to
population size.
This made some
richer nations that had already secured vaccines
through separate deals with pharmaceutical firms
eligible for COVAX doses alongside countries
with no supplies at all.
With some nations administering booster shots
while others are still giving first jabs to the
most vulnerable, the WHO has now tweaked the
rules.
"For the October supply we designed a different
methodology, only covering participants with low
sources of supply," Mariangela Simao, WHO
Assistant Director General for Access to
Vaccines, said in a recording of a conference
presentation last week posted on the WHO's
website.
The change comes 15 months after the launch of
the COVAX program.
Slides from Simao's presentation showed that, of
the more than 90 poorer nations served by COVAX,
about half had immunized less than 20% of their
populations and 26 less than 10%. Many wealthy
nations reached 70% coverage during the northern
hemisphere summer.
About 75 million doses of Pfizer, AstraZeneca,
Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Sinopharm
vaccines will be distributed in October to 49
countries considered among the least covered,
the slides showed, without indicating the
recipient nations.
Do “DIY Air Purifiers” Work Against COVID-19 In
Schools? Not Exactly, According To Air
Filtration Experts
Parents and teachers
across the country are concerned about COVID-19
in the classroom. Vaccinations for children
under twelve are still under trial and are
several months away from receiving Emergency Use
Approval from the FDA.
In California, an unvaccinated elementary school teacher made the
news by infecting half of their students and a
total of 26 people around the school with
COVID-19. The presence of new variants makes the
already contagion-friendly classroom environment
even more likely to spread COVID-19 as well as
other illnesses.
In the wake of the back-to-school season, instructions on how
teachers can make their own “air purifiers” for
their classrooms are circulating on the internet
and highlighted by major media outlets. The
design involves a box fan, four low cost MERV-13
filters, and duct tape, all of which can be
found at a local home improvement store or big
box retailer. Some have claimed the DIY design
is as effective as a HEPA equipped air purifier.
“The single biggest objection I have to that claim,” comments
Steve Smith, CamCleaner Segment Manager at
Camfil US, “is the MERV 13 pleated filters do
not have the particle capture efficiency
required to remove a significant amount of
potentially virus-laden aerosols from the air
stream in a single pass. Expecting this device
to be as efficient as a HEPA filter could lead
to a false sense of security and actually
increase risk.”
One claim the proponents of the DIY devices make is that they are
as effective as HEPA filter air purifiers
because inexpensive box fans move a higher
volume of air. However, air circulation (the
movement of air in a space) and air filtration
(removing contaminants from the air) are two
separate functions. High volume air circulation
in an unventilated space without adequate
filtration will not provide suitable protection
against COVID-19.
“Airflow in the HVAC world is often
expressed as CFM, cubic feet per minute” says
Smith. “A cubic foot of air is about the size of
a standard basketball. If 100 CFM is flowing
through an air filter, you can visualize that as
100 ‘basketballs’ flowing through the filter
every minute.”
A tested and certified H14 HEPA filter (as
found in the Camfil City M) is 99.995% efficient
on a single pass. That means the 100 basketballs
of air are 99.995% cleared of the size
respiratory aerosol particles that could contain
the COVID virus.
The MERV 13 pleated air filters used in
the DIY device are far less efficient. In fact,
the same 100 basketballs of air would need to
recirculate and pass through those MERV 13
filters twelve times in order to equal the
cleanliness of air that passes through a HEPA
filter only once.
Making matters even worse, those low
priced, two-inch MERV 13 pleated filters used in
this device are all made with filter media that
achieves the MERV 13 value by relying on a
temporary electrostatic charge.
As the filters load with dirt, the
electrostatic charge is no longer capable of
maintaining MERV 13 efficiency and the filter
often drops to as low as a MERV 8. Without the
benefit of the charge, which can happen within
weeks of class starting, those 100 basketballs
of air would need to pass through the filter
almost 75 times to equal a single pass through a
HEPA filter.
A MERV-8 rated air filter is enough to
protect the mechanical parts of your HVAC system
from being damaged by large particles of dust
and debris, but it doesn’t provide the level of
filtration required to capture virus-infected
respiratory droplets. Without a HEPA filter that
captures 99.995% of these particles in a single
pass, a DIY unit like this is essentially just a
fan that blows them around the room but removes
very few.
Box fans can, according to the CDC, be
used to improve the effectiveness of opening
windows as a form of ventilation by pushing the
air out.
“If you want to make one of these for your
home workshop to control sawdust from power
tools, this is a great project to undertake,”
advises Smith, “but for serious risk mitigation
against COVID in a classroom, a DIY design will
not be nearly as effective as a professional air
purifier equipped with tested and certified HEPA
filters.”
Pace Analytical Now Can Detect Virus Variants in
Wastewater
Pace Analytical® Services announced the
expansion of its quantitative COVID-19
wastewater monitoring service to detect virus
variants defined by the World Health
Organization. Introduced in May 2020, Pace
Analytical® was the first commercial scientific
laboratory to offer COVID-19 wastewater monitoring.
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is a
single-stranded RNA virus and part of a group of
viruses referred to as coronaviruses. Pace
Analytical® monitors and analyzes wastewater
samples for coronavirus and variant RNA, the
genetic signature of a virus.
“Over the past year, Pace has partnered with a variety
of organizations to monitor SARS-CoV-2 RNA
levels in wastewater,” notes Eric Roman, CEO of
Pace Analytical®. “This data has proven critical
in helping our customers track the spread of
COVID-19 and alerting communities to potential
increases in infection rates even before
clinical diagnoses can be made. The additional
investments Pace has made in detecting variants
will help our customers create a data-driven
response to the ongoing threat of COVID-19.“
Pace Analytical® customers who responded to a recent
survey indicated that wastewater monitoring
provided an early warning of an outbreak,
ranging from two days to two weeks. “Consistent,
routine monitoring provides data that not only
indicates the presence of a virus, but the
relative level of symptomatic and asymptomatic
infections,” said Johnny Mitchell, Chief
Technology Officer at Pace Analytical®.
“Identifying the presence of the variants within
a population can provide additional insight,
such as potential changes in transmissibility or
the severity of illness caused by a new
variant.”
Pace Analytical® COVID-19 monitoring services have
helped cities, universities, congregated living
facilities, manufacturers, industrial plants,
and others better prepare their communities and
businesses for potential outbreaks. Pace
monitoring services for SARS-CoV-2 and its
variants are immediately available.
Reusable Masks Needed
This is the opinion of
SASKIA V. POPESCU, PHD, MPH, MA, CIC, a hospital
epidemiologist and infection preventionist.
“We need PPE that can be reprocessed both within a health care setting
and at home—this issue speaks to bigger needs
outside the hospitals and patient care areas.
PPE that is single use can and does serve an
important purpose, but one of the greatest
hurdles we’ve had has been through continuously
having to refit-test people when new masks come
in that haven’t been used before. We need masks
that can easily be fit-tested or are more
moldable to ensure a good seal. Health care has
such a significant waste problem and single-use
PPE, like masks, is a prime example. To design
more PPE like elastomeric respirators that can
be reused and appropriately reprocessed would
give us a significant advantage in times of
stressed supplies but also ensure that we have
higher levels of respiratory protection that are
readily available and can be used by multiple
health care workers.”
Moreover, such masks should be more moldable to make fit-testing easier
and more efficient. Having to redo fit-testing
for health care workers when we ran out of one
kind of N95 and got another brand in was
extremely time consuming. There is a desperate
need for us to think outside the box when it
comes to PPE and to incorporate IPs and
frontline responders into these conversations as
well as conversations about research and
development. Our approach to PPE and masks is a
bit antiquated and now is the time to invest in
innovation and pragmatic solutions, but we need
to call upon the individuals who have
experienced the hurdles of working in a
pandemic.
https://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/view/many-masking-problems-can-t-be-masked
Filter Solutions from Parker
Parker HVAC
Filtration offers a broad range of filters to
solve the most challenging filtration
challenges. The impressive legacy of filtration
brands combined with
technical expertise have strategically
helped customers across various industries and
facilities achieve a better environment for
their occupants, employees, manufacturing
processes, equipment and livestock.
In 2020, Parker introduced LoadTECH® filters with
proprietary E-Pleat® media technology to
help customers meet increased air filtration
challenges in their HVAC systems.
Feature and
benefits include:
-
Achieve significant
energy savings in comparison to
standard rigid filters
-
Reduced filter weight
provides lower, safer and easier
maintenance
-
MERV 14 efficiency
rating
FSU Purchases Over Seven Thousand Air Purifiers
Recently, FSU installed some of the latest
technology in air filtration systems in the
heart of each classroom. The university’s latest
procurement of over 7,000 air purifiers costing
roughly $3 million was in an effort to reduce
the amount of COVID-19 cases at FSU.
According to the Assistant Director of News and
Research Communications Amy Farnum-Patronis, the
division of the 7,000 air purifiers was branched
between classrooms and common areas as well as
offices and other public areas. About 2,100 were
sent to classrooms and 5,000 to public areas for
faculty and staff.
The Environmental Protection Agency has stated
that the HEPA air purifier theoretically can
remove around 99.97% of airborne particles,
drastically reducing the risk of contracting
possible harmful airborne particles, which could
include the COVID-19 virus.
“By themselves, portable air cleaners and HVAC
filters are not enough to protect people from
the virus that causes COVID-19," according to
the EPA.
President Richard McCullough and FSU faculty are
all encouraging everyone to practice COVID-19
safety around campus. Even with the addition of
the new air purifiers, it’s still highly
recommended for FSU students to get vaccinated
and wear their masks while indoors.
Joel Bergholtz, a professor in the English
department, believes air purifiers are a great
first step in the right direction; however, it
is just the first step.
“It would be great for FSU to do more, though.
I’d love for instance, for masks to be required
in classrooms, or for face masks to be offered
around campus in the same way hand sanitizer is
offered,” said Bergholtz.
Sarah O’Neill, an FSU senior, provided an
optimistic insight about the recent installment
of the air purifiers in classrooms.
“The FSU air purifiers show how our school is
trying to work through COVID-19 in
unconventional ways and help the student body,”
O’Neill said.
Though some may see the new filters as an
unconventional purchase, a majority of the
students and faculty at FSU are excited about
the next steps in making classrooms and
in-person teaching safer for everyone.
USTA Wins Award for Use of Air Filters
The National Air Filtration Association (NAFA)
recently honored UTSA with a 2021 Clean Air
Award. As only one of two university recipients
in Texas, UTSA Facilities is proud of their
latest HVAC system upgrades that have improved
indoor air quality for the UTSA community. NAFA
recognizes leadership and excellence in air
filtration.
“Proper filtration is essential under any
conditions, but especially in today’s
environment,” said Associate Vice President for
Facilities Paul Goodman. “We are
committed to achieving and maintaining high
indoor air quality in our buildings through
filtration and other means. We are proud to be
honored by the National Air Filtration
Association.”
In prioritizing a safe return to campus,
Facilities followed recommendations from the
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and
Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) for the safe
reopening of buildings. Guidance included
implementing a thorough systems evaluation to
measure air ventilation levels and check for
existing equipment or system issues. General
recommendations include the continuous
inspection and maintenance of HVAC systems and
superior ventilation and filtration to minimize
air contaminants.
After a thorough inspection of the university’s
HVAC system, the Facilities Preventative
Maintenance team partnered with Joe Fly Co., a
company specializing in air filtration needs, to
improve indoor air quality. Major HVAC system
improvements included superior ventilation and
filtration upgrades to a total of 56 large air
handler units. The installation of MERV 13
filters will help trap and filter airborne
particles and other contaminants, promoting a
superior indoor environment. Additionally,
another 65 other units received an evaporator
coil cleaning and disinfection process. This
process included electrostatic spraying and an
advanced probiotics treatment to aid in
disinfecting units for healthier indoor
ventilation.
“Our Facilities Preventative Maintenance team is
proud to be in the forefront, safely reopening
buildings using ASHRAE’s recommendations,” said
Campus Facilities Engineer George
Morales. “This NAFA award is a testament of
Facilities’ efforts to providing clean air for
building occupants during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The coil treatment and replacement of filters
will have a positive impact for a very long
time!”
“After working with UTSA for many years now, it
is apparent that the Facilities Maintenance
Department takes great pride in their facility
by keeping a clean, healthy environment for all
the students, staff and employees,” said a Joe
Fly Co., representative. “To say UTSA cares
about their indoor air quality needs is an
understatement, as they truly go above and
beyond and are a worthy recipient of this
award.”
NAFA’s Clean Air Award was created to promote
and recognize the use of high efficiency
filtration products and outstanding maintenance
practices, while reducing overall operating
costs. Any facility or company that demonstrates
a focused effort to provide a clean indoor
environment using proper air filtration is
eligible for nomination. Recognition is awarded
to facilities or companies that demonstrate
innovative sustainability efforts to improve the
air quality for building occupants.
