Stay safe this holiday season and avoid catching and passing the cold and flu by following these simple yet effective hygiene tips.
Avoiding a COVID Christmas
It's a record year for the wrong reason--already the worst flu season in a decade, combined with record RSV infections and hospitalizations and climbing COVID cases and deaths.
The holiday season might be more miserable than merry for many Americans, as a “tripledemic” of viruses continues to sweep the nation and push hospitals to the brink.
More than three-quarters of ICU beds in the U.S. will be occupied through Christmas, according to projections by the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
COVID deaths sit at around 2,700 weekly, and new hospital admissions just under 5,000 daily.
There have been at least 15 million flu illnesses so far this season, with 150,000 hospitalizations and 9,300 deaths, according to the CDC.
Compounding the problem--holiday travel is estimated to approach pre-pandemic levels, with more than 100M Americans expected to travel between the Christmas and New Year's weekends.
According to AAA's 2022 Year-End Holiday Travel Forecast, this holiday season will be the third busiest since it began tracking in 2000.
An estimated 112.7 million people are expected to travel 50 miles or more during the holidays, from December 23 to January 2.
That's around 3.6 million more than last year and closing in on pre-pandemic numbers.
The Risk of Holiday Travel and Illness
Quite a bit has been made over the years regarding the transmission of illness during the holiday season and what role travel may play in increasing infection rates.
A 2017 metadata review of more than 700 separate studies (9 of which met the researcher's criteria for inclusion) regarding holiday travel and illness found that;
Most travellers were tourists, the most frequent destination regions were Asia and Africa, and the median trip duration ranged from 8–21 days.
All studies collected data through either extraction from the medical record, weekly diaries, or pre- and post-travel questionnaires.
Between 6–87% of travellers became ill across all studies.
Four studies provided the best estimate: between 43–79% of travellers who frequently visited developing nations became ill; travellers most frequently reported diarrhoea.
Facility Hygiene Tips to Prevent Infection Transmission
With record-breaking travel estimates coinciding with record-breaking infection rates, the possibility of a significant outbreak of COVID, influenza, and RSV seems incredibly high.
Schools and businesses can help stop the spread by:
- Cleaning occupied facilities every day using commercial-grade soap-based detergents.
- Disinfecting fomites 2 to 3 times per day with an EPA-registered disinfectant.
- Encouraging building occupants to wash their hands well and often with soap and water.
- Providing hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes to office workers.
- Increasing cleaning and disinfection frequencies in high-traffic or high-risk facilities.
- Keeping restrooms, breakrooms, floors, and entryways immaculately clean and hygienic.
- Upgrading HVAC filters to MERV-13 or higher and installing commercial-grade portable air cleaners in classrooms and offices.
- Resupplying sanitation-paper products early.
Takeaway
The likelihood of a tripledemic appears increasingly high as record-high holiday travel prepares to collide with outbreak levels of RSV, influenza, the common cold, and COVID-19 across the country.
According to Blue Shield CA;
Health officials across the country are mobilizing to help stop the spread of the tripledemic, including COVID variants, seasonal flu, and the respiratory virus known as RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus).
Cases for all three viruses have spiked as we enter the colder months of the year, causing illnesses, hospitalizations, and even deaths.
Increasing cleaning and disinfection frequencies alongside quality handwashing programs will significantly reduce the presence and spread of infectious respiratory illnesses throughout the cold and flu season.
Onboarding and managing the requisite labor and material resources necessary to ensure the highest standards of cleanliness are achieved and maintained may prove cost-prohibitive for many organizations.
Outsourcing is a proven method for onboarding highly in-demand cleaning and disinfection services and experience for a fraction of the price of maintaining a similar service in-house.
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 on-site 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
