COVID-19 Manual Case Studies: Care home

Background

A care home in Lancashire has installed a UV air steriliser into a resident’s room to protect the resident from airborne COVID transmission.

The home has, like many others, had an outbreak and has had to start isolating residents into their own room.

Intervention

However, the risk of transmission is still high and consequently the installation of the mobile UV unit will reduce COVID viral loads and provide protection to the resident. The mobile unit seen here draws in room air including COVID aerosols into the inlet in its base, a fan pulls it through a filter and up across UV lamps which ‘kill’ COVID virus – and other virus and bacteria – with an efficiency over 95%, delivering cleaned air back into the room via the outlet grilles.

The unit is positioned to create a clean air zone around the resident as it sends air toward the door. This is an effective way of keeping the room air as clean as possible and protecting the resident. The unit is easy to keep clean, compact, quiet - but has a boost level if needed which has a higher noise level - and uses low energy fluorescent lamps which deliver UV at 254 nm. The unit shown is a wheel-mounted ‘mobile’ UV air steriliser provided by Mansfield Pollard, a UK manufacturer based in Bradford. This unit can provide required air changes for small rooms such as this resident rooms, and rooms up to 6m x 5m.

 Image 1. Mobile UV air cleaner located into a resident’s room

Image 1. Mobile UV air cleaner located into a resident’s room
in a care home providing protection against COVID-19 and other airborne pathogens