During the COVID-19 pandemic, the elderly (65+ years) experienced disproportionately high mortality rates, with care homes reporting significantly elevated casualties. Care homes constitute a unique built environment, functioning as both healthcare and residential facilities, yet they remain underexplored in ventilation research today. This study evaluates the performance of portable air cleaners (PAC) to reduce infection risk by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The draught rate (DR) was evaluated to analyse the potential local discomfort resulting from PAC. The findings reveal that PAC can reduce infection risk moderately (~20%) and achieve acceptable DR (< 10%). Given the growing ageing population, further research into alternative engineering controls (PAC), is essential to enhance infection risk mitigation and enhance occupant satisfaction in care home environments.