How to choose the best type of
ventilation for a pub

Publicans are required to consider ventilation as part of the required COVID-19 risk assessment to safeguard employees and customers.
Airborne transmission of COVID-19 from droplets exhaled during breathing, talking, coughing and sneezing are widely considered to be a risk of infection. Inadvertent carriers may be asymptomatic or be in the initial most infectious period when few or no symptoms are evident.
Fine droplets and aerosol transmission can remain airborne for hours and travel many metres, particularly in poorly ventilated enclosed spaces. The risk of infection increases with both the particle concentration level as well as the length of exposure time.
Government and WHO guidance stresses the importance of mitigating the risks of droplets and aerosol transmission in enclosed spaces by avoiding the re-circulation of indoor air and increasing the ventilation rate with fresh outdoor air.
Good practice would be to purge ventilate for two hours before and after occupancy and configure the ventilation system to provide increased rates of fresh outdoor air at all times including maintaining trickle ventilation at night when the building is not occupied.
Particular focus should be placed on toilet cubicles to continuously extract stale air to outside and ensure an adequate supply of fresh replacement air.

The following sources provide guidance which is regularly updated as more information becomes available.
Alan Macklin, Technical Director – Elta Group