A farming company is ready to roll out new sanitising technology if COVID-19 returns to the community.
Palmerston North's Saflex Pumps primarily uses a spray technology to keep the teats of dairy cows clean before milking to reduce mastitis.
But co-founder Mark Bell Booth said the same technology - along with an automated fly spray - inspired the design of a new system which can sanitise indoor areas to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
A dry fog machine pumped sanitiser in microns smaller than the size of a human hair into a closed room, he said.
If someone with COVID-19 had been in a room shouting or singing, the sanitiser would cling to the virus infected particles in the air.
Because the sanitiser particles were only about 3-5 microns, they could hang in the air, but also drop onto shelves and furniture around a room.
After a room was filled with the sanitiser it was left for 30 minutes before people were allowed back in.
It would be well suited to cruise ships, hotels and potentially aeroplanes, Bell Booth said.
The business had been in discussions with the cleaning industry in New Zealand, he said.
One distributor told him "if we were at level 2, I'd buy 300 of them right now", Bell Booth said
The company was working on pitching itself to the international market, where COVID-19 is still rampant.
RNZ
