IDPH to provide air purifiers to Head Start classrooms

Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health have announced that the state will be providing more than 1,000 HEPA purifiers to Illinois Head Start and Early Head Start programs around the state to help reduce the transmission of respiratory viruses, including COVID-19.

In the coming weeks, IDPH will begin delivery of about 1,090 air purifiers that will be distributed among 45 different Head Start programs throughout the state, including Cook County with the exception of Chicago. The state also is delivering a three-year supply of replacement filters for the purifiers and 225,000 COVID-19 rapid antigen tests to the Head Start and Early Head Start programs for distribution to their staff and families served.

IDPH is coordinating the $2 million investment with the Illinois Head Start Association, which supports the federally funded program that works to prepare children from low-income families to succeed in school from birth to age five. The effort builds on a previously announced IDPH program to provide HEPA air purifiers to K-12 schools throughout Illinois and is funded through the CDC’s Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Prevention and Control Reopening Schools funding.

Last month, the CDC released new guidelines for indoor ventilation that set a specific target for the first time. The new guidelines call for at least five air changes per hour, meaning the equivalent of all the air in a room is replaced five or more times within an hour.

Studies show that cleaner air can reduce absentee rates and improve students’ abilities to think, learn, read and solve math problems.

Last year, IDPH issued ventilation guidance to educate the community on the impact of ventilation systems and to provide information about low cost and DIY interventions for ventilation upgrades.