Once again, as businesses prepare to reopen their doors to the public and more schools open their doors to students, occupants and facility managers will focus on a wide range of enhanced cleaning and proven disinfection services to ensure the transmission rates stay down for good this time around.
Opening and Staying Open--What Services Matter in the Fight Against COVID?
We know more now than we knew a year ago.
Cliched, but accurate.
Shortly, vaccinations will be spread among the population's most vulnerable.
Schools will reopen to classrooms filled with students that will still touch everything within reach and forget to wash their hands.
Businesses will struggle with restroom hygiene and general cleanliness.
And, the memories of a generation will pass before many look at a surface in a public place without imagining it harboring the source of their doom.
Post-traumatic stress from long-term lockdowns, compounded by non-stop messages of fear broadcast through every media source, will inevitably and irrevocably alter facility guests' and occupants' behaviors and perceptions for years to come.
People will not shop, visit, eat at, or send their children to be educated in a place where they do not feel safe and protected.
The question remains--what must school administrators, business owners, and facility managers do to re-establish and secure that trust now and into the future?
To answer that question, we must understand how SARS-CoV-2 spreads.
How SARS-CoV-2 Spreads
Thus far, it is believed that SARS-CoV-2 is most commonly transmitted via human-to-human, close-proximity contact.
However, two other forms of transmission--too quickly dismissed by many without sufficient evidence--have been documented that are well within a facility manager or cleaning service provider's powers to impact positively.
The first form of transmission is surface-to-human.
Viruses thrive in the great indoors, Charles Gerba, a virologist, and microbiologist at the University of Arizona, says.
Case in point: A pre-print study (not peer-reviewed) on 318 Covid-19 outbreaks in China found that 80 percent of outbreaks happened at home.
If somebody walks in a home with a virus on their hands, it'll be on 90 percent of the surfaces in about four hours because of all the activity that goes on in a home.
It's interesting how fast a virus spreads in an indoor environment today."
Considering that Americans spend about 90 percent of their time indoors and indoor spaces, ranging from restaurants to the office buildings, are starting to reopen in some states, that ease of spread is an important factor to consider as you meditate on how to stay healthy as the pandemic continues.
While the increase in surface cleaning and fomite disinfection is plain for anyone to see, we may have inadvertently missed one of the main routes of human-surface transmission--the floor.
The report, based on findings from Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China, where the global COVID-19 pandemic began, notes that 94 percent of samples taken from floors in the facility's intensive care unit -- and 100 percent of those taken from one of the general wards used to treat patients with severe symptoms -- tested positive for coronavirus during the height of the outbreak in the city.
Researchers also found that half of the samples from the soles of the ICU medical staff shoes tested positive for the virus, suggesting that the soles of medical staff shoes might function as carriers.
They cited this as a likely reason for why the floors of the hospital's pharmacy tested positive for the virus, despite the fact that COVID-19 patients were not allowed in that area.
The second form of transmission within the power of facility managers and janitorial service providers to positively impact is the spread of COVID and other bacteria and pathogens via toilet plumes in the restroom, which are either aerosolized and inhaled or spread to surfaces, contaminating occupants, and then spread throughout the rest of the facility.
According to a recent article published by CBS News;
"Evidence suggests the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 via aerosols is plausible under favorable conditions," the researchers concluded, offering the latest evidence that the virus does travel through tiny particles in the air, not just larger droplets.
Although transmission via the shared elevator cannot be excluded, "this event is consistent with the findings of the Amoy Gardens SARS outbreak in Hong Kong in 2003," the report stated. The leading theory in that outbreak focused on sewage backups in the apartment building, where the virus may have become aerosolized.
The Chinese researchers mentioned that with COVID-19, "toilets are a daily necessity, but may promote fecal-derived aerosol transmission if used improperly, particularly in hospitals."
The World Health Organization came under pressure this summer and eventually conceded that, in addition to droplets, airborne particles could not be ruled out as the source of some reported COVID-19 outbreaks, especially in indoor settings with poor ventilation.
How did COVID show up in the bathroom of a long-vacant apartment, and what does it mean?
SARS-CoV-2 Mitigation Strategies for Facilities Managers and Cleaning Service Providers
From the evidence regarding the common methods of COVID-19 transmission, it is clear that janitorial teams can play a critical role and have a positive impact on facility hygiene and occupant health by:
- Focusing their efforts on proven, high-performance cleaning methods that significantly reduce surface cross-contamination potential, especially from restrooms, floors, and other high-traffic areas of a facility.
- Use EPA approved high-quality commercial-grade cleaning and disinfection products, especially on floors and fomites, at least every day that the facility is occupied.
- Employ touchless deep cleaning scrubber vacs, automated floor scrubbers, and electrostatic disinfection appliances to provide a level of cleanliness beyond the capabilities of the most dedicated and focused human cleaning teams, and;
- Practice strict infection prevention safety precautions by wearing and properly disposing of PPE and soiled cleaning tools.
Takeaway
Regardless of your personal stance on many subjects surrounding the spread of SARS-CoV-2--to get through this, we are going to have to reestablish the public faith in the safety of private businesses and public facilities and venues.
To accomplish that task, facilities managers, business owners, school administrators, and janitorial service providers will need to commit themselves to the highest cleanliness and safety standards.
If you would like more information regarding the effectiveness of high-performance infection prevention and control measures, or if you would like to schedule a free, no-obligation onsite assessment of your facility's custodial needs, contact us today for a free quote!
In Bakersfield CA, call (661) 437-3253
In Fresno CA, call (559) 206-1059
In Valencia CA, or Santa Clarita CA, call (661) 437-3253
In Palmdale CA, or Lancaster CA, call (661) 371-4756
