Coronavirus Technology Solutions
April 16, 2020
Ventilation and Filtration Important in
Buildings to Mitigate the Virus Impact
Pork Processing
Plant in South Dakota Tries to Cope with 600
COVID Cases
Meat Processing Plants Can Protect Against Virus
and Improve Pork Shelf Life
More Than Five Meat Processing Plants Close
Because of COVID-19
Smithfield is Part of the World’s Largest
International Pork and Meat Processing Company
Top 100 U.S. Based Meat Processing Companies
Employ More Than 500,000 People
Food Processing Plants Need High Efficiency
Filtration and Up to 24 Air Changes per Hour
Extensive Sanitation Programs Employed in Meat
Processing
The HACCP Analysis for Meat Safety can be a
Guide for Virus Control As Well
Cleanrooms for Ready to Eat Foods
Testing Could Cost $30 to $500 Billion
Just 268 Cases and No Deaths in Vietnam Thanks to Extreme
Measures
Japan Now Has Nationwide Lockdown
Remote Monitoring to Make Hospital Beds Available
Oura Rings Can Be Used to Track Potential Virus
Transmission
Multiple Mask Decontamination Routes Analyzed by
Consortium
______________________________________________________________________________
Ventilation and Filtration Important in
Buildings to Mitigate the Virus Impact
Proper ventilation, filtration and humidity
reduce the spread of pathogens like the new
coronavirus
says
Joseph G. Allen
director
of the Healthy Buildings program at Harvard T.H.
Chan School of Public Health. He cites previous
studies showing virus transmission through HVAC
systems. This is supported by evidence
that the site of infection for one of those
coronaviruses was the lower respiratory tract,
which could only be caused by smaller particles
that can be deeply inhaled. If buildings are
managed poorly, they can spread disease.
But says Allen “ if we get it right, we can
enlist our schools, offices and homes in this
fight”.
Buildings typically recirculate some air,
which has been shown to lead to higher risk of
infection during outbreaks, as contaminated air
in one area is circulated to other parts of the
building (as it did in the school with measles).
When it’s very cold or very hot, the air coming
out of the vent in a school classroom or office
may be completely recirculated. That’s a recipe
for disaster.
If air absolutely has to be recirculated, you
can minimize cross-contamination by enhancing
the level of filtration. Most buildings use
low-grade filters that may capture less than 20
percent of viral particles. Most hospitals,
though, use a filter with what’s known as a MERV
rating of 13 or higher. And for good reason —
they can capture more than 80 percent of
airborne viral particles.
For buildings without mechanical ventilation
systems, or if you want to supplement your
building’s system in high-risk areas, portable
air purifiers can also be effective at
controlling airborne particle concentrations.
Most quality portable air purifiers use HEPA
filters, which capture 99.97 percent of
particles.
These approaches are supported by empirical
evidence. Allen says “In my team’s recent work,
just submitted for peer review, we found that
for measles, a disease dominated by airborne
transmission, a significant risk reduction can
be achieved by increasing ventilation rates and
enhancing filtration levels. (Measles comes with
something that works even better that we don’t
yet have for this coronavirus — a vaccine.)
There is also ample evidence that viruses
survive better at low humidity — precisely what
happens during winter, or in the summer in
air-conditioned spaces. Some heating and
ventilation systems are equipped to maintain
humidity in the optimal range of 40 percent to
60 percent, but most are not. In that case,
portable humidifiers can increase humidity in
rooms, particularly in a home.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/opinion/coronavirus-buildings.html
Pork Processing
Plant in South Dakota Tries to Cope with 600
COVID Cases
This South Dakota plant is now closed due to the
large number of COVID cases. Smithfield
officials said they have enhanced cleaning and
disinfection at the plant, provided additional
protective gear and expanded employee health
benefits. They said they have also installed
plexiglass and other physical barriers as well
as thermal scanning equipment to detect
employees with fevers.
“We are laser-focused on our employees’ health
and well-being and are immediately taking all
necessary actions to protect them,” Kenneth M.
Sullivan, the company’s president and chief
executive, said in a statement.
One step would be high efficiency filters and
HVAC with frequent air changes in the breakrooms.
After hours on
the factory floor, workers had gathered around
communal tables in the crowded and boisterous
lunchrooms.
At the Smithfield Foods plant, the locker rooms
were so tightly packed that workers
sometimes had to push
through a crowd. Coughs echoed through
the bathrooms.
Smithfield spokeswoman Keira Lombardo said
difficulty in getting masks and thermal scanners
led to delays in implementing some safety
measures when the plant was open. But she said
in the
week before the shutdown the plant was
adding extra hand-sanitizing stations, scanning
employees’ temperatures before they entered and
installing Plexiglas barriers in some areas.
Smithfield has said it plans to clean the plant
and implement more protections in the hopes of
reopening. The Centers for Disease Prevention
and Control sent a team to the plant this week
to examine how it can be safely restarted.
But that may be difficult. Workers say they
cannot fathom how butchering lines could be
reconfigured to accommodate social distancing.
Meat Processing Plants Can Protect Against Virus
and Improve Pork Shelf Life
The microbial contamination and hygienic design
of air conditioning systems for food processing
and packaging rooms, including the microbial
control in the air by means of UV lamps,
essential oil aerosolization, and filtration are
important. The value of the clean rooms and
microbiologically controlled environments for
food processing and packaging is explained
through a case study of slicing and packaging of
ready-to-eat meat products.
The study of Prendergast et al. on Irish cattle
slaughterhouses confirmed that the air is a
potential vector of bacterial contamination and
showed the need for physical segregation of the
contaminated and clean zones.
These authors also showed that the air
circulation systems have to be designed to
direct the airflow from the clean areas to dirty
areas. In addition, a slaughterhouse design with
the product flow in a straight line and in only
one floor with an effective means of separating
dirty and clean areas was found to be the best
system for reducing air-
transmitted bacteria.
More Than Five Meat Processing Plants Close Because of COVID-19
Meat processing plants across the U.S. and Canada are
being forced to close as employees sicken with
the new coronavirus, raising concerns both for
the meat supply chain and worker safety at the
often crowded plants.
One of the biggest closures to date was Sunday's
indefinite shuttering of a Smithfield Foods
plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota that is
responsible for around five percent of the U.S.
daily pork supply,
"The closure of this facility, combined with a growing
list of other protein plants that have shuttered
across our industry, is pushing our country
perilously close to the edge in terms of our
meat supply," Smithfield President and CEO
Kenneth M. Sullivan said in a statement
announcing the closure. "It is impossible to
keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants
are not running."
Other plants have shut their doors, at least temporarily,
according to Reuters. They include:
JBS USA plant Greeley, Colorado that is
responsible for five percent of the U.S.
daily beef slaughter,
said
it would close until April 24.
The deaths of at least three Latino employees
from coronavirus at the plant are raising alarms
about the safety of workers
Tyson Foods hog slaughterhouse in Columbus Junction, Iowa
said
it would extend an April 6 closure. Soaring
numbers of workers at the plant who have been
sickened by COVID-19 have sparked fears not only
for the employees’ health but also for the
vitality of this small town and the continuity
of the nation’s meat supply.
Officials from Tyson Foods have closed
the plant amid one of the state's largest
outbreaks of COVID-19: 186 employees have tested
positive for the illness. The facility is one of
the nation's major pork processing plants and
the rural community's largest employer.
“We are taking on water fast,” National Pork
Producers Council President Howard “A.V.” Roth
said, adding that thousands of hog farms could
close this year without government
intervention. “Immediate action is imperative,
or a lot of hog farms will go under.”
The Columbus Junction plant is one of several
meatpacking facilities across the state and the
nation where business has been suspended after
they were hard-hit by the highly contagious
coronavirus.
National Beef Packing Co. plant in Tama, Iowa suspended cattle
slaughtering
Olymel pork
plant in Yamachiche, Quebec, that closed
starting March 29.
Maple Leaf Foods
poultry plant in Brampton, Ontario suspended
production April 8.
Overall, hundreds of workers have fallen ill at plants in
Colorado, South Dakota, Iowa, Pennsylvania,
Mississippi and other locations.
Smithfield is Part of the World’s Largest International Pork and
Meat Processing Company
Smithfield is a global food company whose
subsidiaries operate farms, facilities, and
offices in North America, Europe, and Mexico. It
employs over 54,000 people.
Smithfield Foods is a Virginia-based company and
is the world’s largest pork processor and hog
producer; it produces a variety of brand name
meats and partnered with a Chinese company long
before the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2013, shareholders of Smithfield
Foods voted to approve a partnership with Shuanghui
International Holdings Limited, a
private company based in Hong Kong that holds a
majority of shares in China’s largest meat
processor, Henan Shuanghui Investment &
Development Co. Ltd.
Forbes magazine reported that a
growing demand due to large populations, rising
production costs and repeated concerns about
quality “formed the basis of Shuanghui
International’s quest to acquire the North
American meat producer.”
Forbes also reported the Chinese
acquisition of Smithfield does not mean that
Americans will be eating Chinese cuts. “Shuanghui
isn’t looking to offload Chinese pork in Los
Angeles. What it wants is to become the leading
player in China.”
Smithfield’s website further states
that “Smithfield has not, does not, and will not
import any products from China to the United
States. No Smithfield products come from animals
raised, processed or packaged in China.”
Top 100 U.S. Based Meat Processing Companies Employ More Than
500,000 People
The U.S meat processing industry must cope with
the virus threat for large numbers of people.
Tyson has over 100,000 employees. Omaha Steaks
is only 52 in terms of sales rankings but
employs 2000 people. The top 100 companies
operate over 500 plants.
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https://www.provisioneronline.com/2018-top-100-meat-and-poultry-processors
Food Processing Plants Need High
Efficiency Filtration and Up to 24 Air Changes
per Hour
Studies cited by Camfil
have
found that even the most efficient
air-conditioning system can spew out high
amounts of bacteria into an indoor facility, and
when that facility is responsible for the
manufacturing and packaging of food, that
pollutant can create a health crisis. That’s why
air quality at a food processing plant is so
important, and also why it’s nearly impossible
to eliminate pollutants without an effective air
filtration system.
“Outdoor air can carry from 200 to 1,500
bacteria per cubic meter,” stated Mark Davidson,
Camfil USA Food & Beverage Segment Manager.
“That means that poorly filtered air
conditioning systems can circulate as much as 15
million bacteria each hour, and that can
compromise the quality of products at food
processing plants. Understanding the importance
of temperature, humidity and air filtration are
the keys to establishing an effective air
filtration strategy.”
One of the biggest problems in a food processing
facility is the constant amount of negative
pressure. That is the reason that food
processing facilities must have as many as
two-dozen air changes per hour.
Extensive Sanitation Programs Employed in Meat
Processing
In the meat industry there are mainly four type
of sanitizers used; Hot water, Chlorine,
Iodophors,
and Quaternary
Ammonia (Quat). Each has their own advantages
and disadvantages and is best used under a
rotation system to avoid resistance buildup.
From the very beginning a commitment to
sanitation is a must, beginning with
construction of the facility for ease of
sanitation through the development of a properly
maintained plant sanitation program Next, the
proper equipment must be available to employees
to ensure successful completion of their
sanitation objectives. In addition, dedication
of appropriate time within the workday is
necessary for a functional sanitation program to
succeed. Continual training is vital to educate
employees in the basics of proper sanitation.
https://swine.extension.org/meat-plant-sanitation/
The HACCP Analysis for Meat Safety can be a
Guide for Virus Control As Well
The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point
(HACCP) concept is a systematic, science based
process control system for food safety. This
concept forms the basic structure of a
preventative system for the safe production of
meat products. Note that the key to this system
is that it is a preventative approach to
producing the safest possible meat products for
human consumption. This means that potential
biological, physical or chemical food safety
hazards, whether they naturally occur in food,
are contributed by the environment, or are
generated by a deviation in the production
process, are prevented, eliminated or reduced to
produce safe meat products
https://swine.extension.org/introduction-to-haccp-for-meat-and-poultry-processors/
Cleanrooms for Ready to Eat Foods
RTE foods (e. g., luncheon meats, cold smoked
salmon, dips such as hummus) are prone to
post-process contamination with both pathogens
and spoilage organisms. To minimize
contamination, processors should process and
package sensitive items in cleanrooms with
positive pressure.
Positive pressure is produced by using a battery
of air filters. The first should be a coarse
filter (often called a “rock and boulder”
filter) that captures large particulates and
helps protect the second filter, which removes
dust particles and even some microorganisms from
the air.
When using filters, a processor should consider
installing pressure differential gauges on them.
Filter changes should also be incorporated into
the preventive maintenance program. In addition,
more frequent checks should be made on pressure
gauges to ensure they are operating properly.
For instance, a processor might change filters
every quarter, but monthly checks will ensure
pressure differentials are within expected
operating parameters. If the filters need to be
changed out earlier, the processor should do so.
It is a minor cost compared to those associated
with economic spoilage or an outbreak.
Testing Could Cost $30 to $500 Billion
That’s the conclusion of Microsoft researchers Divya Siddarth and
E. Glen Weyl, who run some basic calculations in
a white paper for Harvard’s Edmond J.
Safra Center for Ethics and suggest that
in the US, “[e]ven under the most optimistic
scenarios, we need to be testing millions of
people per day to allow a significant return to
the workforce. Tens of million per day seems
more likely and more than 100 million may be
necessary in the worst case.”
Siddarth and Weyl calculate a sufficient US testing program would
cost between $30 billion and $500 billion,
depending on the approach.
Just 268 Cases and
No Deaths in Vietnam Thanks to Extreme Measures
Vietnam shares a border with China, yet it has
reported no deaths from COVID-19 and just 268
confirmed cases, when other Southeast Asian
nations are reporting thousands.
Experts say experience dealing with prior
pandemics, early implementation of aggressive
social distancing policies, strong action from
political leaders and the muscle of a one-party
authoritarian state have helped Vietnam.
With experience gained from dealing with the
2003 SARS and 2009 H1N1 bird flu pandemics,
Vietnam's government started organizing its
response in January — as soon as reports from
Wuhan, where the virus is believed to have
originated, began trickling in. The country
quickly came up with a variety of tactics,
including widespread quarantining and aggressive
contact tracing. It has also won praise for its
transparency in dealing with the crisis from
the World
Health Organization and
the CDC.
Tens of thousands have been put in quarantine
camps.
By the end of March, Vietnam had banned all
international and domestic flights. The
government locked down the country on April 1.
State-run media say the current social
distancing and stay-at-home orders are to be
extended for at least another week.
Japan Now Has Nationwide Lockdown
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a
nationwide state of emergency, expanding the one
put in place less than two weeks ago that
covered Tokyo and six other prefectures as the
deadly coronavirus continues to spread.
The prime minister also announced plans to give
stimulus funds of 100,000 yen, the equivalent of
about $930, to each of Japan's 120 million
citizens to lessen the economic hardship of the
faltering Japanese economy.
Japan's first modern state of emergency was
put into place early last week. It was limited
to Tokyo, as well as Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba
prefectures and Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka.
This latest declaration now applies to all 47 of
Japan's prefectures.
Remote Monitoring to Make Hospital Beds
Available
Desperate to free up beds for only the sickest Covid-19 patients,
hospitals nationwide are weighing the use of new
technologies to monitor patients from their
homes. This is the conclusion by Casey Ross
writing in STATnews.
Physicians at several hospitals said their discussions with makers
of these devices have kicked into high gear in
recent days after the FDA issued guidance
indicating it would not object to modifications
in the use or functionality of remote patient
monitoring tools during the outbreak.
Such tools rely on software and smartphones to track patients’
blood pressure, breathing, and temperature, as
well as the functioning of their lungs, heart,
and other vital organs. Most hospitals are
already dramatically expanding the use of video
and phone visits with patients, but remote
monitoring of objective biological measures is
considered the next step in their response.
https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/25/coronavirus-hospitals-weigh-remote-patient-monitoring-tools/
Oura Rings Can Be
Used to Track Potential Virus Transmission
More than 2,000 care providers in San Francisco
are using mHealth wearables to monitor their
temperature in a program designed to identify
people who’ve been infected by the Coronavirus
as quickly as possible.
In a project developed by the University of
California at San Francisco, emergency medical
workers at UCSF and Zuckerberg San Francisco
General Hospital are wearing Oura Rings, which
monitor heart and respiratory rates and changes
in body temperature. The digital health devices
are being given to staff who have recently come
in contact with people infected by COVID-19 and
will be worn for three months.
The purpose of this study is to collect
information from a wearable sensor that may
allow researchers to develop an algorithm that
can predict onset of symptoms such as fever,
cough, and fatigue, which can characterize
COVID-19,
The Oura ring is a simple self-tracking device
that provides accurate feedback on the body so
that it may perform better both mentally and
physically. It sells for less than $300.
Multiple Mask
Decontamination Routes Analyzed by Consortium
The ongoing shortage of personal protective
equipment (PPE), including N95 masks, during the
unprecedented COVID-19 crisis has forced many
hospitals, care centers, and first responders to
reuse their limited supply of critical
resources. This lack of protective devices puts
healthcare workers at increased risk of
infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes
COVID-19. A volunteer collective has come
together in an effort to reduce the risk
associated with N95 reuse.
Known as N95DECON, this collective consists of
volunteer scientists, engineers, clinicians, and
students from 10 universities across the United
States, as well as other professionals in the
private sector. N95DECON’s objective is to
review, collate, publish, and disseminate
scientific information about N95decontamination
to aid in decisions about N95 reuse. Another key
effort of this collective is to identify
important information that might be used in
future joint research projects.
Over several
weeks, N95DECON team members have met
online to exchange information, suggestions, and
ideas in an open and transparent way. This
involved reviewing a large body of information
concerning N95 decontamination and deliberating
over different methods based on evidence from
scientific literature and available. These
discussions strictly adhered to the principles
of exploring whether the data was convincing,
definitive, complete, and reproducible.
Amit Gupta, Director of Engineering at
Consolidated Sterilizer Systems, contributed to
this effort by offering expertise on the topics
of sterilization and disinfection, as well as
real-world practices within laboratory and
healthcare settings.
“This project came about because everyone
involved wanted to find a way to help out in
this time of crisis,” said Gupta. “Many of us
aren’t doctors or nurses, we aren’t developing
vaccines or diagnostic tests, but we recognized
that we do have valuable expertise we could
leverage to help those on the front lines.”
The official N95DECON report will be updated
with new information as it emerges. It is
important to note that this work in no way
addresses or remedies the PPE shortage but
rather suggests contingency strategies to reduce
the risk associated with N95 reuse for
healthcare workers.
“There’s a lot of misinformation about this
virus,” said Gupta. “We wanted to compile all of
the relevant literature into a coherent,
reliable set of documents in an effort to combat
that misinformation. Our hope is that this
resource will promote personal safety by
preventing people from doing things that they
might think are best practice, but actually
aren’t.”
This work is motivated by N95DECON team members’
deep appreciation and gratitude for the workers
at the frontlines of this pandemic. The
scientific community is working to support these
individuals by exploring and mobilizing
scientific literature and research teams to
provide data-backed solutions against threats to
their health and safety.
To see the full report, please visit N95decon.org.
There are separate summaries for three
approaches. Relative to heat and humidity.
N95 keeps filter performance at 5 cycles of 60°C
heat, 80% humidity
For UV If implemented properly using sensors to
ensure ≥1J/cm
UV-C dose to the N95, this method likely
inactivates SARS-CoV-2; however, this has not
yet been confirmed directly with SARS-CoV-2.
This method may protect against some bacterial
co-infection risks but not all.
For H2O2-If implemented properly, and N95s are
not soiled, it is likely that both HPV and HPGP
machine-standard protocols inactivate SARS-CoV-2
and bacterial spores. HPGP and HPV are distinct
processes; decontamination durations and maximum
recommended reuse cycle recommendations are
extremely different.
