60 schools lacking ventilation systems now have HEPA filters to help combat COVID
CBC
The 60 New Brunswick schools without integrated mechanical ventilation systems have a new tool to combat COVID-19 — HEPA, or high-efficiency particulate, filters.
Forty-seven of the schools tested high for carbon dioxide, "but within the safe range," CBC News has learned — almost double the number the Department of Education initially reported last fall. CO2 levels are considered a good indicator of ventilation efficiency.
All New Brunswick public school students returned to in-person learning Monday for the first time since before the holiday break, as part of the province's return to the less restrictive Level 2 of the COVID-19 winter plan.
To help reduce COVID-19 transmission in indoor settings, the Department of Education purchased portable HEPA filtration systems for 2,000 classrooms at a cost of $3 million.
"As of Monday, most HEPA filters have already been installed," said department spokesperson Flavio Nienow.
A report commissioned by the department before Christmas concluded that while there is "no evidence directly proving that HEPA filtration reduces COVID-19 transmission" in the classroom, it can reduce the propagation of airborne COVID particles when properly installed and combined with masking, Education Minister Dominic Cardy said last week.
"Given the rapid spread and transmissibility of Omicron, we know we need to use every single available tool," he said.
Other provinces, such as Ontario, spent millions on HEPA filters for schools before classes started last fall.
Eleven of the 60 schools are also expected to have integrated ventilation systems installed in 2022, said Nienow.
They had among the lowest air quality results when CO2 testing was conducted during the winter of 2020-21.
These schools include: Birchmount School, Forest Glen School and Hillsborough Elementary School in the Anglophone East School District; Barnhill Memorial School, Back Bay Elementary School, Inglewood School and Norton Elementary School in the Anglophone South School District; Burton Elementary School, Connaught Street School and Montgomery Street Elementary School in the Anglophone West School District; and École Blanche-Bourgeois in the francophone south district.
The remaining 49 schools will have ventilation systems installed within the next four or five years, unless the schools themselves are replaced first, assistant deputy minister of corporate services Robert Penney has said. The timeline is based in part on the limited availability of trades workers, Cardy said.
Unlike the 234 schools in the province that do have integrated ventilation systems, the 60 schools without have to rely instead on opening doors and windows to circulate air.
The province has previously refused to identify the 60 schools, directing inquiries to the seven individual districts. Last September, only five of the districts responded to a request for information — Anglophone North School District, Anglophone South School District, Anglophone West School District, the francophone north-east district and the francophone north-west district.