As COVID-19 continues its spread across the globe, governments, organisations and scientists are offering continually updated advice to individuals and businesses. The one aspect that has remained constant is the requirement for stringent hygiene protocols and practices. These measures will increasingly require a deep clean for coronavirus. For business owners, the priority must be their duty of care to their employees’ health. A deep clean can help you to balance this by keeping your business running and thereby ensuring the safety of your workforce’s jobs.
Office Risk Areas
So which areas of the office are the hot spots when it comes to passing on potentially harmful viruses? These are the places where multiple people come into contact with equipment. On desks, a telephone mouthpiece, keyboard and PC mouse are hotbeds of bacteria, potentially harbouring a virus. Shared areas such as kitchens, bathrooms, meeting rooms, receptions and print rooms all provide a crossover space where people can contaminate through contact. These spaces are the real focus of a coronavirus deep clean. Clearly, these areas cover the majority of an office layout. So, maintaining the hygiene of your office is vital.
Understanding the Virus
As an employer or business owner, you’ve probably read up on coronavirus. You should instruct staff to self-isolate should they show symptoms. Rather than “flu-like” symptoms, there are actually two main indications of this virus:
a high temperature
a new, continuous cough
Any staff with these symptoms should remain at home for 14 days and their working space should undergo a deep clean. The government requirement is is that:
“Once symptomatic, all surfaces that the person has come into contact with must be cleaned including:
all surfaces and objects which are visibly contaminated with body fluids
all potentially contaminated high-contact areas such as toilets, door handles, telephones”
This is a lot of space, even for small offices. So your method and timing of a deep clean for coronavirus is vital. Indeed, while your office is quieter as colleagues work remotely you can take the opportunity to deep clean your office.
What is a Deep Clean?
A deep clean is a process that intensively cleans all of a space at one time. A regular clean focuses on different areas of an office, paying less attention to the overall. After a deep clean, though, an office is entirely disinfected from top to bottom. Clearly, speed is of the essence when your deep clean is in response to a contamination. Similarly, you must be confident that the methods of a deep clean are reliable in its results of disinfection.
Electrostatic Deep Cleaning
This innovative method of deep cleaning sprays electrostatically charged particles over surfaces and equipment. The positively charged particles aggressively adhere to surfaces, enabling this process to coat and sanitise more accurately. Electrostatic spray surface cleaning is 50% quicker to undertake than traditional methods of deep cleaning. This makes its application more accessible and requires less personnel. So you can expect results for more reasonable rates.
Deep Clean Timing
Businesses may choose to deep clean for coronavirus because an employee has been diagnosed with COVID-19. Alternatively, you may choose a deep clean for coronavirus as a precautionary measure. If you have chosen to direct your employees to work remotely, this is an ideal time to schedule a preventative deep clean. By doing so, when your staff return to the office, there is much less chance of a resurgence of virus contamination.
Current Advice to Businesses
Government advice is currently not to close workplaces, but to encourage remote working where possible. So unless they have displayed symptoms, staff should be free to work from the office. However, many businesses have chosen to direct staff to work from home, if this is possible. Clearly, the direction that business owners take here will very much depend on their line of business and remote working infrastructure.
Ongoing Best Practice
Preventing the spread of germs is vital in managing an illness such as coronavirus. So within your office, you should continually promote the following behaviours as advised by the Government:
cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve when you cough or sneeze.
put used tissues in the bin immediately
wash your hands with soap and water often and use hand sanitiser gel if soap and water are not available
try to avoid close contact with people who are unwell
clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces
do not touch your eyes, nose or mouth if your hands are not clean
What about the Future?
Some experts have suggested that seasonal coronavirus illnesses may become commonplace in future years. This means that workplaces may find increased requirements of office hygiene in response. As a general approach, maintaining a high level of office cleanliness will always help to prevent the spread of illness between employees. Part of your regular schedule of cleaning should, therefore, include a deep clean. The timing of this may in future years be planned to dovetail for coronavirus.
In the wake of the coronavirus crisis, regular deep cleaning of office spaces should become a regular part of a workplace maintenance schedule. When organisations like CJH cleaners can offer the service as a quicker process, we hope to make this change more manageable for businesses. Just contact us to discuss or book an office deep clean.
For up to date government advice and guidelines, always go to official sources such as the Department of Health and Social Care.
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