Is The Office Space Safe From Covid-19?

In my morning paper the headline read “249 experts agree: Virus lingers in the air indoors”. This got me to thinking how safe are office spaces in today’s pandemic environment? Asia has been repopulating many of its corporate offices months before the U.S. and I couldn’t find any reports one way or the other. There are a number of published recommendations for improving the air quality in office buildings, including increasing the percentage of outdoor air into the system if possible, opening windows if available, increasing the airflow supply to occupied spaces, running the DVAC system after-hours to improve air dilution (that will run havoc with your operating expense budget), using ultraviolet germicidal irradiation as a supplement to help inactivate the virus, and numerous other ideas. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has a ton of recommendations on their website. Some of their ideas might dramatically increase utility costs so be aware.  Government at different levels are also starting to get involved which rarely leads to lower costs or less paperwork but just maybe it will get us safer buildings.