Even before the pandemic, air purifiers were among the most sought-after household appliances. Once governments acknowledged in mid-2020 that the coronavirus could remain in the air for hours, manufacturers struggled to meet demand.
As other factories laid off staff, air-purifier maker RGF Environmental Group in Florida more than tripled its workforce, from 140 to 500 people. In Indonesia, sales of Sharp Corp’s “plasmacluster” purifiers jumped, from about 3,000 units a month pre-virus to almost 13,000 by January 2021.