LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – The Clark County School District is using new UV sanitizing light technology to fight COVID-19 in classrooms.
CCSD unveiled the system, called The Arc Wednesday at Cashman Middle School at Desert Inn and Decatur. All 372 schools in the district will receive one of the devices.
The Arc is a hospital-grade UV-C light that creators say destroys 99.9 percent of pathogens on surfaces and in the air in less than seven minutes.
“Using this once a day will give you a monumental improvement in the health and safety of your child,” said Grant Morgan, the co-founder and CEO of R-Zero Systems, who was on hand to show off the technology. “It has enough energy to inactivate any type of bacteria, virus, mold or fungi on any surface or in the air.”
CCSD does not plan to use the device in every classroom, every day, but will use it in restrooms and health offices daily, and a few rooms every evening. The Arc will be brought in if there was a COVID-19 outbreak on campus. The entire school would be swept by the light system. Schools will work on a schedule to have each classroom done at least once per week.
“There is no silver bullet that is going to make the buildings 100 percent safe,” said CCSD facilities chief, Jeff Wanger. “This is one tool in our layered strategy for virus mitigation.”
The technology comes as the school district surpasses 1,000 positive COVID-19 cases in under three weeks of in-person instruction. Those numbers concern some parents.
“I’m sending (my daughter) to school and just hoping that she doesn’t come home with COVID,” said local parent Melissa Valle. “Hopefully this sanitation will help with that and bring some relief to a lot of us parents who are concerned for that.”
In addition to the Coronavirus, The Arc can also inactivate the flu, common cold, E. coli, and other noroviruses.
Wagner said after the COVID-19 pandemic is under control, CCSD will still employ The Arc to keep schools disinfected.
UV-C is a skin and eye irritant, so the machines will be placed in empty classrooms. Officials say it is safe to enter the rooms immediately after they are cleaned, and the device will automatically shut off if anyone enters a room by accident.