The CDC Air Quality Guidelines for COVID Mitigation
How to use the CDC recommendations in your setting
The air quality of your facilities may be one of the most important considerations for sustaining in-person learning. Every person who walks into your buildings - teachers, students, parents, aides, janitors, secretaries - is impacted. That makes attending to the quality and safety of air quality so important.
The CDC provides a number of science-based and common-sense recommendations when it comes to COVID mitigation strategies for classroom air quality. From HVAC settings to the use of air-circulating fans, they provide an extensive list of recommendations.
While most deal with actions that can impact ventilation air-flow and the proper use of face masks, there are a few recommendations that are made that can have the most direct impact on classroom air quality. That is the use of air filtering or cleaning systems that can improve the [Ventilation in Buildings | CDC] level of air filtration as much as possible without significantly reducing airflow.
Among other suggestions, their recommendations present some important air filtration best practices.
- Make sure the filters are sized, installed, and replaced according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
- Consider portable air cleaners that use high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters to enhance air cleaning wherever possible, especially in higher-risk areas such as a nurse’s office or sick/isolation room.
- Consider using ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) in schools and non-home-based childcare programs as a supplemental treatment to inactivate the virus that causes COVID-19, especially if options for increasing ventilation and filtration are limited. Consult a qualified professional to help design and install any UVGI system.
