Coronavirus In Minnesota: M Health Fairview Decontaminating N95 Masks Using UV Technology
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- M Health Fairview announced an innovation they hope will ease the strain on personal protective equipment supplies.
They say they are decontaminating N95 masks at the rate of 62 every 45 minutes using a mobile UV tower system. By those rates, they estimate they could decontaminate up to 600 or 700 masks per eight-hour shift.
M Health Fairview said that 3M has verified that the fit and filtration of its N95 respirators did not show degradation after going through the UVGI (ultraviolet germicidal irradiation) system.
"The process maintains the integrity and performance of the masks for up to six decontamination cycles," the health outlet reported.
The tower system has been rolled out this week to the hospitals in its network with the highest levels of N95 mask use.