Colombia. The Indoor Air Quality Chapter of ACAIRE shared a series of recommendations to make air conditioning systems an ally for the final stage of isolation of patients with coronavirus.
"At ACAIRE we promote good air conditioning practices and ensure the health and safety of people. A correct design, installation, operation and validation of infectious insulation areas is vital in achieving this goal," the document says.
Below are described a series of minimum technical conditions that must be met in this type of areas, which were written by the group of experts of the CAI Indoor Air Quality committee:
Isolated-infectious areas
- There must be a separate Air Handling Unit for each cubicle.
- There must be a negative pressure differential with respect to the useful environment (0.04 in h2o) -10 Pa. Likewise, there must be a lock prior to the entry of the area.
- It must have a continuous differential pressure monitoring system, preferably of the traffic light type.
- HePA filtration must be available in the discharge of air to the outside of the enclosure.
- Air filtration must be available in the supply to the enclosure. Recommended minimum of 85%.
- The driven air supplied to the area must be 100% Outside air.
- Air renewals/hour within the area must be a minimum of 12.
- The conditions of the area must be in a range of Temperature of (21-25) °C and Relative Humidity (40-60) %.
Recommendations
- Make use of certified complementary technologies for the elimination of microorganisms, installed inside the enclosure and in the air discharge duct to the outside environment.
- The direction of flow of supply air within the area should preferably be made from the patient's feet to the head by locating the return at the upper level of the room.
- Correctly define the minimum separation distance of effluent discharges (polluted air) with respect to outdoor air intakes. The distances recommended by the ASHRAE 62.1 standard in its latest version can be used as a reference.
- Have an operation and maintenance plan for the air conditioning and control systems of the enclosure, which guarantees that all the technical personnel involved have the minimum security knowledge that must be met for an adequate operation of the area.
- The correct and recent validation of these environments is recommended for a reliable and safe operation of the infected isolation areas.
Consequently, this issue should be a warning sign for hospitals, clinics and in general for buildings for health care and infection control in Colombia, with the aim of advancing in the prevention and management of the virus to protect people's lives.
Board of Directors Chapter Indoor Air Quality Acaire.
Mr. Roberto D'Anetra - President
Mr. Ernesto Porras - Vice President
Eng. Adis Machado - Secretary General
Eng. Daniel Tello - Academic Director
Eng. César Ruíz - Executive Director
Eng. Jose Naranjo - Technical Director
