Help reduce the spread of COVID

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By now you may have heard that we’re experiencing high cases of flu and RSV (a respiratory disease) (in-language resources available) this fall, with young children being hospitalized. With cold weather, we spend more time inside. This increases the potential for another surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the coming months.

Diseases like RSV, the flu, and COVID-19 are airborne and spread easily indoors. With that in mind, it's important to pay attention to indoor air quality.

Over the fall, Public Health recommended shutting windows to keep wildfire smoke outside. To reduce the germs that cause respiratory illnesses, you want to do the opposite. Bring in as much fresh outdoor air as you can. Below are some strategies for how to do just that!

It's important to remember that indoor air quality is just one of the many prevention strategies to prevent COVID-19. Other strategies to protect you, your loved ones, and your community include:

Two key strategies for healthy indoor air are ventilation and filtration. Ventilation pulls fresh outside air into indoor spaces to reduce the amount of airborne pollutants, such as viruses. Filtration removes viruses and pollutants from the air by trapping them in a filter.

The actions listed below will help you improve both ventilation and filtration in your home, business, workspace, school, community space, or any other place you may gather indoors with others.

If you’re visiting public spaces, there's a few things you can look for to tell you about the quality of indoor air.

Are you a business or organization that is open to the public? Public Health offers free technical assistance to help you improve your ventilation and indoor air quality. To request assistance, please complete this form (in-language resources available) to the best of your ability. Our staff will respond as soon as possible. If you need help with the form or an interpreter, please email [email protected] or call 206-477-5166. Interpretation available by stating your language in English. Then, please hold while you’re connected to an interpreter.

Additionally, we offer more resources on our Indoor Air Quality webpage (in-language resources available). This page contains:

Originally posted on 12/13/22