The Biden administration is asking building owners to help keep COVID-19 cases down in the future.

The White House on Thursday launched the Clean Air in Buildings Challenge, a call to action aimed at improving indoor air quality to make it harder for the virus to spread.

The initiative is part of Biden’s National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan, released earlier this month. The challenge asks government leaders and building owners and operators to assess their indoor air quality and improve ventilation and air filtration. 

The Environmental Protection Agency released a guide Thursday that includes a series of recommendations, including steps that can be taken immediately, as well as links to resources with more information.  

“While the recommended actions cannot completely eliminate risks, they will reduce them,” the EPA website says. “Infectious diseases like COVID-19 can spread through the inhalation of airborne particles and aerosols. In addition to other layered prevention strategies, like vaccination, wearing masks and physical distancing to reduce the spread of infectious diseases like COVID-19, actions to improve ventilation, filtration and other proven air cleaning strategies can reduce the risk of exposure to particles, aerosols, and other contaminants, and improve indoor air quality and the health of building occupants.”

The American Rescue Plan, passed in March 2021 by Congress, included $350 billion for state and local governments and $122 billion for schools that could be used to improve ventilation and filtration in buildings. 

The Biden administration says it will support the initiative by working closely with state, local and tribal governments to provide guidance and technical assistance for improvements, building greater public awareness about the role that ventilation and filtration play in reducing virus spread, and identifying opportunities to drive innovation and implementation of technologies that improve air quality inside buildings.

The president is continuing to combat the pandemic even while facing the possibility that many programs could be scaled back or cut entirely if Congress doesn’t approve more pandemic emergency funding. 

Earlier this week, the White House laid out in detail Tuesday the types of COVID-19 response programs that could be on the chopping block if Congress does not pass an emergency funding bill soon. The administration is seeking a $22.5 billion package.

In negotiations over the $1.5 trillion federal spending bill passed last week, Democrats and Republicans initially compromised on $15 billion in pandemic aid, but Democrats were forced to strip that funding from the package after dozens of its members balked at a GOP-driven plan to use American Rescue Plan money earmarked for states to help pay for it.