The Ministry of Health released Specific Guidance For Sick People Self-Isolating In Apartments Last Week, but those who pushed for the advice to be published already want to see it changed.
A key focus of the guidance is about air ventilation and circulation – something that is easy to do if you can open your windows, but less so if you can’t.
Many apartment buildings operate a centralised air conditioning and ventilation system, which often recycled air.
University of Auckland aerosol chemist Dr Joel Rindelaub said there was a risk the virus could spread to neighbouring apartments any time there could not be “100 percent fresh air”.
“What a body corporate want to do is to try to reduce the amount of recycled air, maybe set up some filtration, to make sure that there can be clean air to breathe,” he said.
The guidance states “it is important to ensure that recycled air is not shared between apartments”.
But Joel Rindelaub said that was difficult and he thought all ventilation systems in New Zealand need to be improved.
