Should we turn on the air conditioner during the COVID-19 pandemic?

The global COVID-19 pandemic continues and probably will not end very soon. More than half a million deaths have been caused by COVID-19 in the United States alone. Vaccines have been developed and widely used. But there are still a large number of new cases every day.

According to ASHARE's guidance, the people are infected with SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19) through exposure to respiratory droplets carrying infectious virus. Infections with respiratory viruses are principally transmitted through three modes: contact transmission, droplet transmission and airborne transmission. Airborne transmission consists of exposure to smaller droplets and particles over long times.

The summer is not far ahead and with the weather temperature gradually rising, people are wondering if the air-conditioning systems can still be used safely without virus transmission. Are they safe and healthy enough to prevent virus spreading and cause further contact?

The complexity of this new type of coronavirus lies in its high pathogenicity through airborne and droplet transmission. Hotels, hospitals, offices, etc… use central air conditioning to regulate temperature and circulate fresh air inside the building. This system causes the air in each room to mix with each other, and it is easy for bacteria and viruses to spread between various building areas, which is potentially dangerous.

But it's not a good idea not to turn on the air conditioning system. The human body's ability to adapt to the ambient temperature is not so strong especially for elderly, children and patients. We should provide them with an indoor environment with appropriate temperature. In fact, as long as we have a way to effectively disinfect the air and inactivate those harmful microorganisms and viruses, we can ensure that the provided indoor air through the air conditioning system is clean.

How to sterilize the indoor air?

The cleaning staff wipe everywhere with the disinfectant, the chefs put the knives in the high-pressure steam to clean and sterilize; the nurse hold the ozone sterilizer to clean the bed sheets; the security staff wait turn on the ultraviolet light after the doctors get off work; or cleaning staff dressed in protective clothing to spray chemical disinfectants.

These are our common disinfection methods, some require labor to operate regularly, and some require labor and machine separation during disinfection, and some only target the surface object disinfection. They all have various deficiencies.

We need high quality air disinfection and purification solution to protect people from possible airborne transmission. The solution of safe and harmless air disinfection method with safe coexistence of man and machine is highly recommended.

AirQuality Technology was originated in Barcelona, Spain. It is dedicated on manufacturing efficient and safe air purification products to improve air quality worldwide. The mission of the company is to let people "take a deep breath" at any time and location. After on-site testing and multi-party demonstrations, AirQuality Technology’s Micro-electrostatic technology is proved to effectively kill viruses not just intercepting them. Collecting the bacteria and microorganisms attached to the particles in a strong electric field and killing them can ensure the efficient removal of PM2.5 while also having efficient sterilization and detoxification effects.

After the MESP air sterilizing purifiers obtained a test report of 99.99% H1N1 virus sterilization rate from SGS, it recently gained a test report from the Innovative Bioanalysis laboratory that shows 99.99% observed reduction of the coronavirus in the air. Those reports strongly proves the disinfection efficacy of MESP products.

Please check the official website of AirQuality Technology for more details: https://en.airquality.com/

Take a deep breath!