Companies ‘should buy carbon dioxide monitors to assess Covid risk and air flow’ as working from home order is dropped
COMPANIES and schools should buy carbon dioxide monitors to make sure the air is fresh enough to curb the spread of Covid, it was claimed today.
The devices will be installed as part of a raft of proposed Government guidelines aimed at tackling poorly ventilated rooms where the virus can hang around in the air.
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Employers will also be told to open windows or install ventilation systems in stuffy rooms.
The new guidance comes as Boris Johnson prepares to withdraw the "work from home" advice as Covid-19 restrictions are lifted on July 19, reports the .
A No 10 spokesman said the Prime Minister would use a press conference on Monday to set out plans and "urge the public to continue to use their freedoms responsibly, so we do not put at risk the progress we have worked so hard for".
Meanwhile, a separate pilot project is trialling carbon dioxide monitors in classrooms.
Last year, Sage's Environmental and Modelling Group concluded it was a good way of measuring higher than normal levels of carbon dioxide.
This gas is emitted from the lungs when people breathe out and so monitoring can detect when a room is badly ventilated and therefore at risk of spreading Covid.
The Health and Safety Executive says: "People exhale carbon dioxide when they breathe out.
"If there is a build-up of CO2 in an area it can indicate that ventilation needs improving."
Cheap non-dispersive infrared monitors are advised.
The watchdog also states the devices can be "well suited" to monitoring air quality in larger offices and meeting rooms, restaurants and bars.
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The guidelines come as rates of infections are surging across the UK amid fears it "would be dangerous" to return to life as normal on July 19.
A Government advisor today warned high levels of Covid-19 vaccination rates could "challenge the virus" to mutate into variants against which the jab is less effective
Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M) Government advisory panel told Times Radio: ";Of course the more cases you have, particularly with high levels of vaccine protection, that does then kind of challenge the virus a little bit more and gives more potential for it to mutate."
