One aspect of the safety precautions that many students overlook, is the importance of air ventilation. With mask-wearing, social distancing, contact tracing, and a whole laundry list of rules we had to adopt in the last seven months, air cleaning units don’t seem to have the same importance. In reality, they have much more significance than previously thought. 

According to the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health, healthy air circulation is central to the effectiveness of other safety precautions. A reopening guidebook by Harvard stated that “this long-range airborne virus can infect even people who haven’t had close contact with the infectious person if they inhale a sufficient amount of virus. Filtration in school buildings can help mitigate long-range airborne viral transmission by removing SARS- CoV-2 from any air that is recirculated through the building.” Coronavirus can linger in the air for hours at a time and the only true way to eradicate its presence is to clean the ventilation system. 

Ramaz has acquired several purifier machines called HEPA air scrubbers, that dispel the virus. Nurse Nechama said that the HEPA filter “is very good at filtering out tiny particles like viruses and bacteria. If I need it in the isolation room for students who have symptoms of Covid in school, we can quickly try to clean the air thoroughly.” This machine is one of the best contraptions on the market and immensely helps in the fight against Covid.