Air purifiers trialled in Ceredigion schools to prevent Covid

Schools in Ceredigion will be piloting new air purifies that have been developed to purify the air in classrooms to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The purifiers have been developed by Dr Rhys Thomas and pupils at Ysgol Bro Pedr have had the opportunity to work with him to create and pilot them in the school.

What is an air purifier?

The purifiers devised by Dr Rhys Thomas are called Corsi Rosenthal Thomas (CRT) and are based on the CorsiRosethal Box model. Dr Rhys Thomas is well-known as he co-designed the CPAP respiratory device to treat COVID-19 patients, as well as the Virtual Ward App to care for patients at home.

The purifiers are designed to clean the air in classrooms and offices from virus particles, including COVID-19, bacteria, fungus and more.

Following the Construction of three purifiers at Ysgol Bro Pedr, Ceredigion County Council wil now trial a further 30 units that will be built and implemented in classrooms on both primary and secondary campuses.

‘Good ventilation is key’

Aled Wyn Dafis, Head of Design and Technology at Ysgol Bro Pedr, said: “Following the work done by the Design and Technology departments to create Visors for our frontline workers at the start of the pandemic in 2020, I began to investigate if we could do something to reduce the impact of the latest Omicron wave on our schools. I came across the fantastic work Dr Rhys Thomas has done to develop the Corsi Rosenthal Thomas (CRT) air purifier for British manufacture using resources that are available cheaply on the Web. So I contacted Dr Rhys for more information and he was pleased to hear that a school in Ceredigion was keen to trial these CRT purifiers.”

Videos have been created where Dr Rhys Thomas and Aled Wyn Dafis explain how to build the purifiers so more people can take advantage of them. You can watch the videos on ‘Virtual Ward Technologies’ YouTube channel:

Dr Rhys Thomas said: “COVID-19 is an airborne virus, so ensuring clean air in buildings like schools and hospitals is essential. Good ventilation is key in breaking down the viral transmission chain, as well as all other bacterial and fungal infections. I have been amazed by the excitement and enthusiasm of the children who want to learn how to keep each other safe by cleaning the air and building their own purifiers. What parent or teacher wouldn’t want to protect their children and future generations?”

Councillor Catrin Miles, Ceredigion County Council’s Cabinet Member for Schools, said: “We are very grateful for Dr Rhys Thomas’ leadership and innovation in developing these vital purifiers and for sharing the method of creating them with the pupils and general public. We are delighted to extend the scheme to other schools across the county for them to be built and used in those schools.”