Thermo Fisher Scientific also piloted the samplers at a Covid-19 field hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts. The hospital implanted the devices in patient care areas, where the virus was to be found, and in staff rest rooms, where it was not.
“Our cold zones were really cold,” said Dr. John Broach, an emergency physician at the UMass Memorial Medical Center and medical director of the field hospital. “And our hot zone was heavily contaminated, which was expected.”
Thermo Fisher Scientific, which will focus on hospitals in the first phase of their deployment, says other health facilities could use the samplers to make sure their Covid protocols are working – and that the virus is not coming out of patients’ rooms.
“We see facilities asking themselves: are their programming and pre-screening activities effective?” said Mark Stevenson, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Thermo Fisher Scientific. “Are the cleaning and ventilation procedures adequate? And, therefore, can I give my patients confidence in their visit to the health center? “
Of course, detecting the virus in a Covid-19 patient’s hospital room is one thing, said Alex Huffman, an aerosol scientist at the University of Denver: “It’s another step into an environment that is likely to have even more concentrations casualties, watch a classroom or medical clinic where you have no idea if there’s going to be someone positive or not. “
And an air sampler is not a silver bullet, said Burke, who ensured that his firefighters continued to wear masks, distance themselves socially and conduct regular Covid tests even after installing the air sampler.
“It can’t be like a smoke detector in your house, where you are, like, ‘I’m just going to have the machine, I’m not going to do anything else, he’ll let me know when there’s a problem,'” he said.