While it’s definitely the case that Covid is not in the news as frequently as it was just a couple of years ago, unfortunately, it’s not actually gone anywhere.
You’ve also no doubt seen the rise of the Pirola Covid strain, and ultimately this is something that business owners need to take seriously as part of their daily cleaning processes if you want to fight against it and reduce a potential spread.
Yes, the vaccinations had a short-term effect on bringing numbers down, however new variants are constantly arising that can still make people very ill, no matter their vaccination status.
Even though there aren’t those strict government mandates nowadays, businesses still need to take the virus seriously. With many businesses leaving remote working to more permanent hybrid roles, the spread of Covid strains in close-proximity workplaces is once again on the rise.
Failure to maintain a clean environment can result in employees getting ill en-masse, and a number of other serious repercussions. If you’re looking to mitigate the risk of an outbreak in your office, then read on to take a look at how to take deep cleaning seriously in order to protect against Covid strains like Pirola in 2023.
Before you can get started with any kind of deep cleaning process, you need to assess the space in question. This will include identifying any especially high-risk areas (such as spaces with sensitive individuals present, or with especially high levels of traffic). Different kinds of spaces will often require different kinds of approaches – for example, an office in a large hospital will likely require a very different strategy compared to an office for a small rural vet.
Part of this assessment will also need to include looking into any relevant regulations and medical advisories. The government website has a centralised portal, where you can find a variety of insights and data on the subject. It’s important to take this initial research seriously; it can have a range of important practical and regulatory implications, none of which you want to overlook.
Your findings during this assessment will determine the rest of your approach, from whether or not you choose to use a professional cleaning team to how frequently you clean different areas.
Once you’ve done some initial research on cleaning your office and any regulations that may apply, you’ll need to get some appropriate cleaning supplies together. When deep cleaning, you’re obviously not just trying to get rid of any surface dirt or dust – you need to make sure that you’re killing any viruses or germs that might be around (especially Covid) and that will require the use of certain products.
You need to ensure that any products you’re using are able to sanitise the surfaces that they’re being used on, without adding another allergen to the office or potentially even damaging surfaces such as plastic or leather.
You’ll also need to ensure that you’re supplying any cleaning staff with appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) so that they don’t get ill while cleaning. Certain items (such as squeegees and cloths) might be reusable, but others (such as certain sanitary wipes) will probably be single-use.
Once you’ve got your cleaning materials together, you’ll need to assemble a team of cleaning professionals. When protecting against viruses such as Covid, it’s especially important that you get the right people for the job. Cleaning may not be particularly complicated, but cleaners need to be trained to operate to high standards, to ensure that they don’t forget any potentially important areas in the office.
In most cases, businesses choose to outsource their cleaning needs to a specialist Covid cleaning company or dedicated, managed provider. It’s also possible to get it all taken care of internally, but this rarely works out to be efficient. You need to make sure that the cleaning team you choose is adequately trained, and that they have plenty of experience with cleaning similar buildings to yours.
While deep cleaning in domestic spaces might be something that’s not done particularly regularly, in professional environments such as offices, it needs to be done a lot more often. Add the risk posed by Covid, and you’re looking at sanitising a lot of spaces at least once a day, sometimes even more.
Obviously, certain deep cleaning tasks that aren’t related to virus risk management, such as getting the dust out of the corners of drawers, can still be done relatively infrequently. However, with tasks such as wiping down door handles and disinfecting bathrooms, you’ll often need to have a rota to ensure that they’re taken care of multiple times a day.
Ultimately, how frequently different areas need to be cleaned will depend on the findings of your initial assessment, and it will be something that you can work out together with the help of a professional cleaning service.
While Covid can spread via contaminated surfaces, it’s also an airborne disease that can be spread directly via aerosols – tiny droplets of infected liquid that people with the illness breathe out each time they exhale. As a result, to protect your office from Covid, you need to do more than just clean, you also need to ensure that there’s adequate airflow throughout the space.
In rare circumstances, this might just require opening the windows. In most office spaces, however, it will necessitate implementing an HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system.
This might mean getting special air filters installed, depending on the specific environment and any particular requirements you might have of the space. It can be useful to consult with a specialist provider, to ensure that you’re ticking all the right boxes for your work environment.
As mentioned briefly already, different spaces will need to be cleaned using a slightly different approach. Next, we go through some typical areas in offices, with a brief introduction of how you’d go about deep cleaning them.
While office cubicles will see a lot of use, unless your office practices hot desking (where multiple people use the same desk at different times) there is relatively little risk of cross-contamination. It’s also important that desk areas are cleaned in a careful manner – there will likely be sensitive materials and equipment present, such as precious documents and expensive computers.
One way to tackle these areas is to have people clean their own desks. Not much needs to be done – dusting some hidden areas, and then using antiviral wipes to get rid of any potential contaminants.
Receptions and waiting areas are some of the areas that need cleaning the most frequently in most offices, particularly when mitigating the risk of Covid. This is mostly because they’ll see a lot of traffic throughout the day, from a lot of different people.
Make sure that you wipe down chairs and coffee tables multiple times a day, getting rid of any visible crumbs and spills but also using an appropriate disinfectant spray to kill any germs. You want to take care of your visitors just as much as your regular employees, and you want to avoid them getting ill at all costs.
Toilets are obviously another area that will need cleaning multiple times a day. As most people will need to use the toilet at some point during the day, they’re one of the spaces that can pose the highest risk for the spread of germs and viruses.
Make sure that you regularly disinfect all surfaces that people might touch, including door handles, taps, soap dispensers, and flushing mechanisms. It’s not just an aesthetic concern, you need to ensure that these high-use areas don’t result in any illness spreading throughout your workforce.
Food preparation and communal eating areas can quickly become some of the dirtiest spaces in most workplaces if proper attention isn’t paid to cleaning them. You need to ensure that they’re deep cleaned on a regular basis, to keep them clean and sanitary.
You’ll want to wipe down regularly used appliances and surfaces (like kettles, fridges and coffee makers) multiple times a day, to minimise the chances that people spread germs in these high-traffic areas. Then, at least once a week, you’ll need to empty out fridges and food cupboards, so that nothing gets forgotten about in some corner.
Shared items in offices, such as printers and photocopiers, can be another hotspot for germs to spread. In addition to wiping them down multiple times each day, it can also be highly effective to place some hand sanitiser stations nearby. That way, people can reduce the chances that they leave any germs on those items, thereby keeping cross-contamination at a minimum.
Finally, in addition to the spaces listed above, it’s important that you regularly disinfect other surfaces that are regularly touched, even if the space that they’re located in isn’t of particular concern. These include things such as lift buttons, light switches, and all door handles.
These spaces are just a few examples of those that one would typically expect to find in a typical office. Obviously, you’ll likely have to slightly adapt your approach based on your specific environment.
No matter how careful you are with buying the most perfectly fitting rubbish bags for your waste disposal locations, you’ll still need to deep clean them every now and then. Splashes of coffee will inevitably spill, and you want to ensure that they’re removed sooner rather than later.
While they won’t necessarily pose a heightened Covid risk, dirty bins can be prime spots for mould and bacteria to multiply. As a result, keeping them clean is important for the general well-being of your employees – it’s not just a matter of keeping the place looking nice.
While cleaning will obviously play a central role in your overall strategy to protect against Covid, you also need to get all of your employees involved in the process.
This can be done through a prolonged campaign of education on general hygiene practices, such as the importance of regularly washing hands, how to sneeze in the most hygienic manner possible, and minimising contact with doors and other commonly touched surfaces.
It’s also important to have clear reporting systems in place, so that people can report any messes or potential hazards they spot while moving around the office.
Getting the whole company involved in disease prevention will make a significant difference in the overall impact you’re able to have. It’s not something that you can just hold a single meeting on and then forget about. You’ll need to hold regular refresher sessions, and post notices and catchy infographics around the offices, to ensure that people don’t forget about how important these measures are for the general well-being of their fellow co-workers.
Your approach to deep cleaning when it comes to fighting against Covid must never become stagnant. You need to constantly be reviewing how effective your current approach is, making any changes to that approach as necessary.
To carry out these reviews, you’ll need to involve as many people as possible, including the cleaning team and the majority of your employees. Make it easy for people to give feedback, and consider providing little incentives for doing so. This will allow you to make sure that you’re not just probing into the dark – that your fight against what can still be a deadly virus remains as efficient and as effective as possible.
Just because we’re not reading about the pandemic every day on the front page of the news, we can’t just sit back and forget about it. The threat posed by the virus is still very real, and businesses need to make sure that they take that threat seriously, to protect the well-being of their employees.
Regular deep cleaning and disinfecting will play a central role in that process. By getting the best team of professional cleaners for the job, and involving employees to keep them informed on best practices with regard to general hygiene, you can minimise the chance of an outbreak occurring in your office.
As with all preventative measures, your success will lie in your collective ability to maintain a stable status quo. It’s simply not an issue that any business can afford to overlook.
To discuss how we can help with retained Covid cleaning solutions, please contact our team directly on 0161 282 6444.
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SMC Premier Group Ltd
117 – 119a Stockport Road
Stockport
SK3 0JE
0161 282 6444
Other Offices: Liverpool
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