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The worldwide pandemic has thrown multiple industries into disarray, with sectors caught scrambling to create a semblance of normalcy and business-as-usual. This is perhaps no more evident than in professional sports, with leagues and teams trying to approximate regular seasons of play. Still, the very real consequences of COVID-19 infection among players and personnel have required professional sports to take significant precautions.
For example, the most recent season of the National Basketball Association (NBA) was marked by a “bubble,” with all personnel ensconced to a number of locked-down hotels and makeshift sports complexes in Orlando, FL. Players were tested daily and wore innovative rings that checked vitals. But most importantly, the teams were not allowed to leave the hotels; conference rooms were converted to basketball courts, with NBA players practicing and playing their games in the same place where they lived during the so-called season.
The National Hockey League (NHL) also created a “bubble” environment and performed daily coronavirus testing during its shortened season.
Unlike the NBA and NHL, the National Football League (NFL) decided against creating a “bubble” and instead focused on player precautions, like daily testing, the use of face masks and the use of proximity trackers“++, where a worn wristband would warn players in practice rooms if they were less than six feet away. This, however, has proved fruitless, since on-field play requires close contact. What’s more, coaches and players have not always adhered to the guidelines, and multiple players have tested positive, throwing the season’s schedule into disarray. The same holds true for college football teams, where the lack of controlled spaces meant players and personnel contracting the virus.
And then there’s the Chicago Cubs.
The Cubs, as an organization, has always looked for an edge to keep players and personnel in peak condition and sought out a way to ensure their health was top of mind. Problem was, the close quarters of the indoor facilities—the locker room, the batting cages and the indoor training facilities—often was a breeding ground for viruses, odors and worse.
Not only that, but germs could spread around very quickly. That could decimate a starting line-up, if players got ill from airborne germs—one player with a sickness could easily become five or more.
Enter AeraMax Professional. AeraMax personnel assessed the Cubs’ indoor spaces at Wrigley Field, noting areas where concentrations of players and personnel gathered. Soon, the Cubs installed a variety of AeraMax Professional III and IV units. These commercial-grade air purifiers remove up to 99.97 percent of airborne contaminants, like viruses, germs, allergens, dust and odors, from indoor air.
What’s more, the units were equipped with AeraMax Professional’s patented PureView and EnviroSmart technologies, which use laser scanners to “read” the air in a room, adjusting the performance of the units to ensure effortless air cleaning. Digital displays provide a readout of particles entering the unit and the clean air returning, so everyone could see the effectiveness. Soon, the Cubs were enjoying cleaner, fresher air, thanks to a four-stage, hospital-like filtration system in the AeraMax Professional units. And, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Months after the installation of the units, COVID-19 began to spread around the U.S.
With studies showing that the coronavirus is transmitted via aerosolized droplets in the air, the Cubs were poised to better protect their personnel in the indoor spaces at the ballpark, given that the AeraMax Professional units were so effective at removing airborne contaminants from the enclosed air. So, when Major League Baseball resumed play after the initial pause to its 2020 schedule, the Cubs were provided a safer environment overall.
