Coronavirus
Technology Solutions
Hydrophobic Air Filter Captures Virus in
Droplets
Australian Schools Need HEPA Filters to Deal
with the Wildfire/COVID Combination
Precision ADM Acquires Canadian Meltblown
Producer
Precision Textiles Expanding in North Carolina
Airlines Requiring High Efficiency Masks
Vaccine Protection
Wanes Within Six Months, U.K. Researchers Find
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Honeywell
Develops Filter Coating to Kill COVID Darius Adamczyk, chief executive of the international company, revealed that that the company was developing an air filter coating that would kill up to 98 per cent of novel coronavirus and was expected to be ready by the end of September at the earliest.
Adamczyk said in an interview that the
chemical coating needs to be approved by the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and
Honeywell is seeking Texas and North Carolina as
partners to help speed up the process.
He said the coating could replace the
heating and air-conditioning filters currently
used in schools and commercial buildings,
avoiding expensive upgrades to these systems to
handle more intensive filtering.
Since the outbreak, Honeywell has
increased production of personal protective
equipment such as N95 masks and developed new
products, including systems that automatically
take body temperature when people enter
buildings and robots that disinfect aircraft
with ultraviolet rays.
Honeywell is seeking to have the filter
coating ready by the end of the quarter and has
conducted independent laboratory tests showing
that the product is between 97% and 98%
effective in eliminating the virus. Adamczyk
said the product, developed by materials
scientists in Honeywell's UOP division, could
easily reach a market size of hundreds of
millions of dollars.
Honeywell has UHMWPE Fiber Patent
Hydrophobic Air Filter Captures
Virus in Droplets A nanocoating for the filters used in heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems can capture and kill SARS-Cov-2 and could prove to be useful tool in the fight against the human coronavirus pandemic. The inventor of the coating, is Curran Biotech founder Seamus Curran. The human coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic has had a profound impact across the globe this year, but few places have been hit harder than New York City in the USA. According to the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, nearly 18,000 people there died with covid-19 in March, April and May. In the summer, after a stringent lockdown, the city started to open-up again as some control was wrestled over the spread of the virus and precautions now familiar to many of us were adopted—the wearing of face coverings and the practice of social distancing, for instance. And in one of the courthouses in the city, these measures are being augmented with a small modification to the building’s heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system that enables it to strip the SARS-Cov-2 virus responsible for the pandemic from the air. The air filters in the HVAC system have been treated with a hydrophobic, water-based nanocoating that enables them to capture airborne or aerosolized droplets of liquid containing SARS-Cov-2. According to its developer, Curran Biotech of Houston, Texas, USA, the coating is inexpensive, easy to apply and does not inhibit the flow of air through the filters.
Even before
the last of the 2019–20 Black Summer smoke
dissipated, another deadly reminder of the
importance of access to safe air arrived. COVID
forced many to take a crash course in how to
avoid respiratory viruses.
One of the
most effective ways to reduce indoor COVID
transmission is to open windows. Maximizing
outdoor air coming inside, known as the air
exchange rate, is a good way to reduce
transmission risk.
But opening
windows during the bushfire season can let toxic
smoke in, changing the risk calculation.
Keeping
windows closed and re-circulating air through
standard aircon systems can cool the air but
doesn’t remove smoke or viruses.
So how can
schools reduce exposure to COVID and bushfire
smoke simultaneously?
This dilemma
has a solution which can be implemented
immediately. A$50 million would provide all NSW
primary and secondary school classrooms, and
other shared spaces within schools, with
High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) grade air
purifiers.
This initial
outlay pales compared to the roughly A$220
million-a-day cost of Sydney’s lockdown.
The added
benefit of installing air purifiers with HEPA
filters is they can help reduce the risk of
asthma attacks too.
Precision ADM
Acquires Canadian Meltblown Producer
Precision ADM
Inc.,
a global medical device and
engineering and manufacturing solutions
provider, announced that it has acquired Roswell
Downhole Technologies Inc. (Roswell
DHT), the first and largest Canadian
manufacturer of meltblown fabric for medical
filtration applications.
Precision Textiles Expanding in North Carolina
To better serve its customer base in the
high-growth mattress industry, Precision
Textiles has
signed a lease for a new 160,000-square-foot,
25-acre campus at 163 Glen Road in Troy, NC. The
new plant is expected to be operational by Sept.
1 and will employ 100, all from the local area.
Airlines Requiring High Efficiency Masks
As COVID-19 cases start to rise in certain
areas, some major airlines have now begun
banning fabric face coverings onboard.
Finnair is the latest airline to ban fabric face
coverings from its flights. Any passengers
looking to travel with the airline must wear
“surgical masks, FFP2 or FFP3 respirator masks
without a valve or other valve-free masks with
the same standard (N95),” according to a tweet
by the airline.
The safety of
our customers and employees is our first
priority. Fabric masks are slightly less
efficient at protecting people from infection
than surgical masks," Finnair said in a statement.
Finnair joins
an increasing number of airlines that have begun
banning fabric face masks onboard, including Air
France and Lufthansa.
“It is
mandatory to wear a surgical mask or an FFP1,
FFP2, or FFP3 type mask, without an exhaust
valve, on board,” wrote Air France in a statement.
Cloth mask is also listed under “unauthorized
masks” along with “masks with exhaust valves.”
Vaccine Protection Wanes Within Six
Months, U.K. Researchers Find
Protection against the coronavirus
from two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and
Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines starts to fade
within six months, highlighting the necessity of
booster shots, researchers in Britain say.
The effectiveness of the Pfizer
vaccine at preventing covid-19 fell from 88
percent one month after taking the second shot
to 74 percent after five to six months,
according to an analysis of data collected in
Britain’s Zoe Covid study, the Reuters news
agency reported. For the AstraZeneca vaccine,
effectiveness fell from 77 percent to 67 percent
after four to five months.
The updated analysis was based on data from more than 1 million
app users from Dec. 8, 2020, to July 31, 2021,
comparing self-reported infections in vaccinated
participants with cases in an unvaccinated
control group.
“It’s bringing into focus the need for some
action,” Tim Spector, Zoe co-founder and
principal investigator for the study, told the
BBC. “We can’t just sit by and see the
protectiveness slowly waning whilst cases are
still high and the chance of infection still
high, as well.” Under a worst-case scenario, protection could fall below 50 percent for older people and health-care workers by winter, Spector said. Britain and other European countries are planning a vaccine booster campaign this year.
Oregon Imposing Mask Mandate in
Populated Outdoor Settings
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced Tuesday that
she is imposing a statewide outdoor mask mandate
regardless of vaccination status.
"The Delta variant is spreading fast and wide,
throwing our state into a level of crisis we
have not yet seen in the pandemic," the
Democratic governor said in a statement.
"Cases and hospitalizations are at a record
high. Masks are a quick and simple tool we can
immediately deploy to protect ourselves and our
families, and quickly help stop further spread
of COVID-19."
The mandate will take effect on Friday Aug. 27
and masks will be required in the majority of
public outdoor settings regardless of
vaccination status.
"Under the Governor’s direction, the OHA rule
will require masks for all individuals —
regardless of vaccination status — in outdoor
settings in which individuals from different
households are unable to consistently maintain
physical distance," the governor’s office said.
"The rule does not apply to fleeting encounters,
such as two individuals walking by one another
on a trail or in a park. While the rule does not
apply to outdoor gatherings at private
residences, masks are strongly recommended in
those settings when individuals from different
households do not consistently maintain physical
distance."
Orange County
Florida School District Requiring Masks Despite
State Edict
At a school board meeting Tuesday night, Orange County
Florida Superintendent Barbara Jenkins said the
district would implement a stronger mask
mandate.
The new rule will apply to all students and staff, it
will start Monday and will remain in effect for
60 days.
"Numbers at 19 percent means you're probably not going
to get over it in 30 days and so I lean toward
saying a universal mask for the next 60 days
through Oct. 30," Superintendent Barbara Jenkins
explained
The decision removes an "opt-out" policy for parents
who do not want their children to wear masks in
school. Medical exemptions, however, can still
be made.
The district's original "opt-out" plan was put in
place to adhere with an executive order put
forth by Gov. Ron DeSantis, prohibiting schools
from mandating universal face-covering rules.
Several other districts across the state, including
Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and
Hillsborough, have gone ahead with plans which
go against the governor's rule.
The new mandate was decided on after hours of debate
amongst school board members which followed
passionate pleas during the public comment
portion of the meeting as well.
The board did not take a formal vote on the issue, but
instead came to a consensus on what the
superintendent should carry out.
Jenkins ultimately proposed the new rule's parameters
and promised some members skeptical over the
timeline of it that if case numbers fall
sharply, the rule could also change quickly.
"I pray that they do," Jenkins said.
Currently, the district has confirmed more than 2,300
cases so far in the new school year -- of which,
about 1,800 are students.
Board members also discussed the possibility of filing
a lawsuit against the state over the governor's
order or joining an existing lawsuit.
Honeywell Reports Banner 2nd
Quarter
Second quarter results were
driven by sales and segment margin growth in all
four businesses. The company also raised its
full-year sales, segment margin, adjusted
earnings per share, and cash flow guidance.
“Building on our first-quarter momentum, we
executed extremely well in the second quarter.
Our results were driven by top-line growth and
margin expansion in all four segments.
COVID Deaths Surge in Africa
Coronavirus deaths in Africa rose
rapidly over the past month, as fatalities
surged by 80 percent the World Health
Organization has said.
WHO's Vaccine Introduction Officer for the African Region,
Phionah Atuhebwe, told CNN that the continent
was witnessing an unprecedented rise in
coronavirus fatalities.
"COVID-19 death rates have increased across Africa, with the
highest weekly rate (6,343) to date reported
during the week starting 19 July 2021," said
Atuhebwe.
"Deaths increased by 89%, from 13,242 to 24,987, in the last 28
days, when compared against statistics for the
previous 28 days," she added.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference Friday
that the pandemic's worsening death toll and
rapid infection rate are "being driven by the
highly transmissible Delta variant,"
which is considered
to be more deadly than the original strain of
coronavirus.
Ghebreyesus said the Delta variant —
so far "detected in at least 132 countries" —
has also spiked Covid-19 infections globally by
80 percent within the past four weeks.
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