Coronavirus
Technology Solutions
New U.S. Cases Rise to 90,000 Per Day
The Market for HVAC Filters and Masks is
Substantially Impacted by Air Pollution Levels
Royal Caribbean Installing MERV 13 Filters and
Increasing ACH to 12
Fulton County Georgia Installs MERV 13 Filters
Nuwave Air Purifier Tested for Virus Removal
Efficiency by the University of Minnesota
New U.S. Cases Rise to 90,000 Per Day
The US recorded 91,530 new Covid-19
infections on the day many Americans cast their
ballots, adding to a series of staggering case
numbers reported within just the past week.
The country's five highest days of coronavirus
cases have
all been recorded since October 29, affirming
experts' warnings another surge is well underway
and will only get worse.
The nationwide seven-day average of new daily
cases now stands at about 86,363 - more than
double what it was on September 4, data from
Johns Hopkins University show.
As of Tuesday, at least 36 states reported more
new cases in the last week versus the week
prior, Johns Hopkins data show. And six states -
Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, and
Pennsylvania - reported their highest one-day
Covid-19 case count Tuesday.
Missouri, Oklahoma, Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska,
North Dakota and New Mexico all reported record
high hospitalizations this week, the Associated
Press reported. Nebraska's largest
hospitals started limiting elective surgeries
and looked to bring in nurses from other states
to cope with the surge. Hospital officials in
Iowa and Missouri warned bed capacity could soon
be overwhelmed.
Though these surges are concentrated largely in
the Midwest and Upper Midwest, troubling signs
are also emerging in the Northeast, The New
York Times reported.
A second wave of infections has started to
surface in states that had brought the virus
under control last spring. Connecticut has been
averaging over 800 new cases per day,
approaching its April peak of over 1,000, the
newspaper said. Maine is well above its May peak
with a seven-day average of 88 new cases per day
as of Tuesday, when the state set a record with
127 new cases, the Times reported.
Rhode Island, with fewer people than Maine, has
been averaging over 400 new cases per day, well
above its spring peak.
In Massachusetts, additional restrictions on
businesses and public gatherings have gone into
effect to fight rising coronavirus infections,
the Times reported.
In New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has ordered
that incoming travelers from non-neighboring
states must be tested for the coronavirus before
and after entry. Those from New Jersey,
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and
Pennsylvania will be exempt, as will essential
workers. The requirement took effect on
Wednesday, the Times reported.
White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr.
Deborah Birx warned Monday that the pandemic is
entering a new and "deadly" phase and the United
States needs to adopt a more aggressive approach
to curbing its spread.
The warning, expressed in a private memo to
White House officials, was a direct
contradiction to President Donald Trump's
repeated claims that the pandemic is "rounding
the corner," the Washington Post reported.
Birx's memo painted a grim picture: "Cases are
rapidly rising in nearly 30 percent of all USA
counties, the highest number of county hotspots
we have seen with this pandemic," it said. "Half
of the United States is in the red or orange
zone for cases despite flat or declining
testing."
The memo went further and suggested that Trump
and his advisers were spending too much time
focusing on preventing lockdowns and not enough
time on controlling the virus.
"We are entering the most concerning and most
deadly phase of this pandemic," Birx wrote.
"This is not about lockdowns — it hasn't been
about lockdowns since March or April. It's about
an aggressive balanced approach that is not
being implemented."
The U.S EPA Air Quality Index is used throughout
the world to measure air pollution levels.
Many consultants are recommending greater use of
outside air to reduce the virus load. This means
the HVAC filters are treating higher percentages
of dusty air. Many filters are changed based on
the increase in pressure drop which in turn is a
function of the dust in the air. In areas of
high air pollution or wildfires the ambient air
can contain ten times as much dust as clean air.
This is less of a problem when you use
inefficient filters. Much of the ambient
particulate will be sub-micron and pass through
a MERV 8 filter but if a MERV 16 filter has been
installed due to the coronavirus, then the life
of the filter could be greatly reduced.
Vogmask has issued
an approximate guide to the optimum life
of a mask at various AQI levels.
In 2019 many countries averaged high AQI .
Here are the top 30 countries
Royal Caribbean
Installing MERV 13 Filters and Increasing ACH to
12
Royal Caribbean says its HVAC system
continuously supplies 100% fresh, filtered air
from outdoors to all indoor spaces.
The air is drawn from one side of the ship for
cooling and ventilation, then removed via
exhaust on the opposite side of the ship.
This continual intake of fresh air replaces the
air in any space, with a total air change up to
12 times an hour in staterooms, and about 15
changes an hour in large public spaces.
In local spaces, like smaller venues and
staterooms, fan coil units provide an
extra layer of protection, continuously
scrubbing the air of pathogens, using a
high-grade MERV 13 filter that captures aerosols
0.3 to 1 micron in size with 90% efficacy— fine
enough to filter colds, flu germs, and
coronavirus.
Royal Caribbean had an independent
assessment conducted by the University of
Nebraska Medical Center.
A bioaerosol assessment was done on Royal
Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas.
This study involved releasing billions of 1µ
aerosol-sized microspheres, each containing
uniquely DNA barcoded inert virus surrogate,
throughout the ship at certain pre-selected
spaces (i.e., crew cabins, guest staterooms, and
adjacent public spaces including the casino,
Studio-B & Disco/Lounge) to determine the
efficiency and effectiveness of the vessel’s
indoor air management strategies, as well as to
understand the spread of the aerosols through
the HVAC system and in between the adjacent
private and public spaces.
The University of Nebraska Medical Center study
found that to clear the virus droplets from the
air in about an hour, they needed to use an HVAC
system that changed the air in the room at least
6 times or more and used a filter with a MERV
rating of 13.
This study confirmed that cross-contamination of
air between adjacent public spaces is extremely
low, and undetectable in most test cases, thanks
to this powerful system.
In addition to the study conducted, as well as
the new policies announced by the cruise line,
the Healthy Sail Panel came up with seven
important things Royal Caribbean can do to
manage indoor air and keep it clean.
Fulton County Georgia Installs MERV 13 Filters
The Fulton County School System says it is
installing hospital-grade filters in its
schools’ heating and air conditioning systems to
fight the airborne spread of the coronavirus.
FCS has installed the filters in six of its 11
Sandy Springs schools and expects to have them
in all facilities in November, according to FSC
spokesperson Shumuriel Ratliff..
FSC returned
to optional in-person classes Oct. 14.
Since then, it has already had to close
two high schools due to COVID-19 diagnoses,
though there is no information about how those
students or staff members got infected.
“We are committed to updating all filters as
quickly as possible,” the department said in a
written statement provided by Ratliff. “Filter
material is limited due to the worldwide demand
on MERV 13 filters as a result of COVID, and we
are replacing the filters as they become
available.”
The filter selection was based on the following
information which is optimistic. MERV 13 filter
is at least 85% efficient at removing particles
that are 1 to 3 micrometers in size, according
to ASHRAE’s website. A coronavirus by
itself is smaller than that and could get
through such a filter, but it typically is
spread through the air when it is exhaled by
people within saliva droplets that are around 1
micrometer, according to ASHRAE. That means the
filters could capture most of the particles that
could spread the pandemic through the air.
Nuwave Air Purifier Tested for Virus Removal
Efficiency by the University of Minnesota
“The University of Minnesota has a long history
of developing techniques to measure and monitor
particle concentrations in the air, such as
aerosols in the ambient air in indoor
environments. UMN focuses their efforts on
understanding the role particles play in
influencing atmospheric chemistry, air quality,
and developing techniques to remove pollutant
particles from the air we breathe, including
indoor environments,” said James Moon, general
manager, NuWave.
Chris Hogan, professor of mechanical engineering
at the University of Minnesota, said, “The
research focus of my lab group is the testing of
control technology to remove pollutant particles
specifically including infectious particles with
viable viruses in them from the air that we
breathe.”
Hogan added, “On the OxyPure unit, we got an
overall removal efficiency of 98% in our
testing. The OxypPure unit can get a removal
efficiency of 98% because it uses multiple
control technologies in it. First, the airflow
passes through an electrostatic precipitator, a
device designed to first ionize particles, so
that they’ll move in an electric field.
Following the electrostatic precipitator, a
high-efficiency particulate air filter is
integrated with an activated carbon filter for
particle removal; these two technologies
together in the OxyPure unit are extremely
efficient in combination and removing
particles.”
The test, according to the company, proved that
a single pass removed 98.24% of the PRCV
concentration at a volumetric flow rate of 70
cubic feet per minute CFM (fan speed level at
1). Chris Hogan, and his team, were able to
calculate that, in just under six hours, this
would yield a 99.999% reduction of the virus in
a 1,200 square foot room at a volumetric flow
rate of 350 cubic feet per minute CFM (fan speed
level at 6).
The OxyPure air purifier’s advanced filter
system is designed to capture microscopic
airborne particles as small as 0.09 microns and
features a five-stage filter system. The air
cleaner is available for $699 on NuWave’s
website, Amazon and retailers nationwide.
Dyson Ventilator is Bed Mounted with Batteries
for Portability
Hospitals are the frontline in the war against
COVID-19, where heroic doctors, nurses, and care
workers are battling to save lives and help
people recover from this terrible virus,” said
Dyson founder and CEO Sir James Dyson.
“As with any battle, there are many challenges
to overcome, not least the availability of
essential equipment which in this case means
ventilators. A ventilator supports a patient who
is no longer able to maintain their own airways
but sadly there is currently a significant
shortage, both in the UK and other countries
around the world.”
He added that CoVent can be manufactured
quickly, efficiently and at volume—designed to
address the specific clinical needs of Covid-19
patients and at a variety of clinical settings.
The device is bed mounted and portable,
operating on batteries. This enables it to be
used in different care settings including field
hospitals, and when patients are
transported. The user interface is safe for, and
familiar to use by, health care providers.
CoVent is powered by the Dyson digital motor,
which has been specially re-engineered by Dyson
to meet the requirements of the ventilator. The
fan units are available in very high volume. It
conserves oxygen
using a rebreathe circuit and uses Dyson’s air
purifier expertise which delivers high-quality
filtration in high-volume products.
“The Dyson digital motor sits at the heart of
the new device and the motor’s design is
optimized to have a very high level of intrinsic
safety, making it particularly well-suited for
industrial, high-volume production,” Sir James
Dyson said. “The device is designed to achieve a
high-quality air supply to ensure its safety and
effectiveness, drawing on our air purifier
expertise which delivers high-quality filtration
in high-volume products.”
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