With
COVID-19 impacting at least 250 schools and early childhood
centres, the Ministry of Education needs to take urgent
action to protect children and teachers, says indoor air
safety technology expert Big Blue.
“Now, more than
ever, the Ministry of Education should be installing world
leading air safety technology to ensure classrooms are as
safe as possible for our children,” said Big Blue Managing
Director Paul Wiggans.
“These numbers are alarming
and are bound to increase rapidly from here if today’s
record overall case numbers are anything to go
by.
“The more children who have to go home to
isolate, the more parents will have to juggle family and
work – that has real social and economic impacts in our
communities and workplaces.
“In our view, the
Ministry’s response to date to supply only 500 air filter
units to some schools in March and more apparently arriving
in June this year just isn’t good enough. These units
aren’t even that effective when it comes to combating
airborne viral transmission – CDC infection control
guidelines show that even at eight air changes an hour it
would take an air filter 35 minutes to reduce contaminants
by 99%. ActivePure Technology is different because it
operates in the air around you so is not reliant on air
filtration.
“It’s clear the Ministry needs to take
urgent action, reset and invest now to protect our kids,
teachers, and wider communities. We had raised this with the
Ministry back in July last year. It’s clear we need to do
a far better job when the technology is readily
available.”
Big Blue is the exclusive New Zealand
supplier of ActivePure indoor air safety units, technology
originally developed by NASA and proven to actively combat
pathogens in the air and on surfaces, including specific
testing against the virus that causes COVID-19, rather than
relying on passive air filtration, providing greater
protection in indoor spaces.
“We could supply 1,500
ActivePure units today to the Ministry of Education if we
got the green light, and enough for every classroom in New
Zealand by mid-April.
“These are already used widely
in New Zealand by other government agencies, public and
private hospitals, and a wide range of businesses and
organisations. Right now ActivePure units are protecting one
of our Super Rugby teams in Queenstown and our Olympic
athletes in Beijing.
“If it’s good enough for
professional athletes, hospitals, offices, hotels, and many
others, why are we not using this proven world leading
technology to protect our most precious asset, our
tamariki?
“New Zealand children deserve better, and
we stand ready to support the Ministry of Education to give
our schools and our children the protection they need at
this critical time,” said Paul
Wiggans.
© Scoop Media
Support the news you love
Scoop has been a champion of independent journalism and open publishing for over 20 years. It stands for informing New Zealanders through straight-talking independent journalism, and publishing news from politics and a huge range of sectors. Now, more than ever, sustainable financial support will help to keep these vital and participatory media services running.
Find out more and join us:
Become a member
Get our free pānui
[ad_2]
Originally Appeared Here