A Ministry of Education-supplied Samsung air purifier in action at Robertson Road School in Māngere. Photo / Michael Craig
A Ministry of Education-supplied Samsung air purifier in action at Robertson Road School in Māngere. Photo / Michael Craig
The Ministry of Education has bought 12,500 air purifiers to help clean the air in classrooms and staffrooms, and by the end of Term 2 more than 8000 had been sent to schools, new data shows.
The Samsung machines, which retail for $799 or $999 depending on size, contain Hepa(high efficiency particulate air) filters which scrub the Covid-19 virus from the air circulating in the classroom.
They're part of a suite of tools intended to reduce Covid infections in schools - particularly important in winter when classrooms are a petri dish of infectious illness.
In December last year the Ministry ordered an initial 5000 air purifiers, to be sent to state and state-integrated schools around the country. In May, the Ministry told schools an additional 7500 air cleaners were available on request at no cost.
As of July 8 - the last day of Term 2 - 2307 state and state-integrated schools had received a total 8310 air cleaners, according to data provided by the Ministry under the Official Information Act.
The data shows the lowest decile (1-2) schools had received the most air purifiers, at a rate of around 17 per 1000 students, while decile 10 schools had received just over 8 per 1000 students.
The purifiers are nowhere near enough for all the 35,000 classrooms in New Zealand, although the Ministry has previously argued around 80 per cent of these can already be sufficiently ventilated naturally.
While the Ministry's position is that opening doors and windows is the best way to ventilate a space, it's also recognised that's not feasible for some schools, particularly in colder regions.
This has been taken into account in distributing the air purifiers. By region, schools in the freezing cold Otago/Southland region had received the most purifiers per capita, at 16.8 per 1000 students.
Those schools had received enough purifiers for every classroom - 18 at Bromley and seven at St James, the data shows.
Specialist schools had also received extra purifiers, as they originally requested. That's in recognition of the vulnerability of their students, who may be more prone to illness, may not be able to wear masks or socially distance, and for whom open windows could present a safety risk.
On average each school had received 3.6 air purifiers by the end of term. It has been left up to schools to decide how to use them, though the Ministry has pointed schools to areas where exposure risk may be higher such as music rooms and sick bays.
It also suggested deploying them in staffrooms - noting that infection among staff members would have major repercussions for the school.
Some schools have also purchased their own extra air purifiers to ensure all classes are covered.
More purifiers still available
On top of the 8300 units delivered by the end of term, the Ministry's head of property Sam Fowler said a supplier was holding another 3600 units in stock, with the rest of the 4000 arriving early in August.
"As outlined in the special bulletin prior to term 3, in light of the current Covid-19 situation the Ministry is now using this stock and distributing additional air cleaners, CO2 monitors and supporting material to all state and state-integrated schools (unless they've requested otherwise)."
On top of the 12,500 air cleaners, the Ministry had also agreed to buy another 2500 units. Suppliers could hold these in stock for schools and other education entities to buy directly, Fowler said.
"To date, we understand that direct demand for these products has been low. The Ministry is therefore drawing from this stock as part of its term 3 distribution, after which approximately 13,500 air cleaners (and 12,250 portable CO2 monitors) will have been distributed."
That would leave some purifiers for direct purchase or for "targeted deployment" by the Ministry as required.
According to a separate statement from the Ministry, by the end of term 2 15 schools had expressed interest via email in receiving extra air purifiers.
'Modest improvement to ventilation'
The Government's position - based on a 2021 study from Niwa - is that fresh air from outside is the best way to keep virus levels low.
However many school buildings don't have good airflow. The windows may only open on one side, or barely at all in some newer buildings, which are more reliant on air conditioning.
In a statement accompanying the data, Ministry leader of operations Scott Evans said air cleaners provided a "modest improvement to ventilation, particularly when other solutions, such as opening windows and doors, are impractical".
They were a supplementary solution that could reduce Covid airborne transmission by filtering and recirculating the air within a space, he said. They would not lower CO2 levels but where air flow was low they would improve air quality.
As well as the air purifiers, 18 schools had been approved for funding for urgent ventilation property improvements, costing $594,533 in total. Others may have carried out property improvements to increase ventilation through their own five-year agreement funding, Fowler said.
The Ministry also told Minister of Education Chris Hipkins last year that in the longer term - "post-winter 2022" - it could make further changes to improve ventilation in schools, including revisiting the design standards for new builds and remediating issues across existing school buildings.
