Protection Effectiveness of a Building-Integrated COVID-19 Sampling Station That Uses a Sealed Acrylic Window as a Physical Barrier

Abstract

To the Editor: Because a healthy and efficient medical workforce is key to containing the present coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, the protection of health care workers is paramount.1,2 According to the interim guidance for the pandemic from the World Health Organization,3 health care workers must don personal protective equipment (PPE) when testing a patient with a high suspicion of having pneumonia. Such PPE must include an N95 respirator, a pair of goggles or a face shield, a gown, and a pair of gloves.4 However, this set of PPE cannot cover all surfaces of the body. Thus, to minimize the risk of exposure to the pathogen, and to conserve PPE, we constructed a building-integrated sampling station. Designed by Tseng Yu-Chi and Tseng Kai-Chen, this station has a sealed acrylic window serving as a physical barrier separating the interior (where the physician is) from the exterior (where the patient is), and a pair of sealed rubber gloves affixed to the station for the physician to perform