GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A Grand Rapids company is helping provide cleaner air for medical professionals as they fight COVID-19. 

Clean Rooms International has been in Grand Rapids since the 80s and has worked with electronics and aerospace companies. In the last few weeks, they’ve taken parts they already had to reconfigure high efficiency particulate air filters or HEPA filters to prevent spread of the disease to health care workers in hospitals.

“It was kind of a rush that came to us and our team was able to create a product that would work,” CRI President Tim Werkema said.

Werkema said in a matter of days, they were able to create, test and get the filter out to their distributors to send to hospitals across the nation. 

“It’s to protect the nurses, doctors, technicians, anybody who’s coming into the room to keep them as safe as possible,” Werkema said. 

The filter is set up on a cart, which can be rolled into a room where COVID-19 patients are being kept in isolation. Once the system is turned on, contaminated air will filter through it and redirected out of a window or into a vacuum system. This creates negative pressure and provides clean air. 

“We’ve shipped thousands so far and we’re getting more requests. It changes almost hourly. It’s an urgent situation,” Werkema explained. 

CRI says the bulk of the systems have gone to hospitals in hot spots like New York and New Jersey. The systems are now being sent to other hospitals across the nation as well. It’s also being used in a lot of field hospitals. 

“It’s rewarding to be able to be a part of the solution and to help our health care professionals stay safe, so they can do their jobs as effectively as possible,” Werkema said. 

They say they couldn’t do any of this without their hard working crew in Grand Rapids. 

“We have a great group of people that work here and they’re working long hours, six and seven days a week to get the product out and it doesn’t happen without this group of people here in Grand Rapids,” company COO Bret Asper said.

CRI says they expect high demand for the filters through the peak of COVID-19 cases. They say they’re happy to help in anyway they can.