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on a major specialist cleaning project, and needed urgent support to provide rolling, continuous decontamination service across all airport areas, both public and back office.


We recently invested in new technology that delivers an ultra-high-level broad spectrum disinfectant spray electrostatically. The fluid, carried in a backpack, is electrically charged as it’s delivered through a 40-micron spray head. The chemical is also formulated to react to the electrostatic charge.


Electrostatic cleaning


The ultra-fine mist wraps around and clings to any surface, hard of soft. It has been proven to have high efficacy against bacteria (including mycobacteria and bacterial spores), fungi and viruses, including the coronavirus. The electrostatic action helps to increase the period during which the agent protects against recontamination.


As with any specialist cleaning and decontamination process, it can be delivered in different ways to reflect the infection risk faced. In this case, our airport client wanted intervention at the highest level.


We put together two teams of four decontamination operatives, working two eight-hour shifts, from early in the morning to late at night. Their task was to move through areas according to a schedule, concentrating on spraying high risk touch points. Both arrivals halls and departure lounges were sprayed.


Based on a risk assessment, these teams wore standard PPE with masks. The aim was to provide an effective decontamination service but to not unduly alarm passengers. Instead, the airport wanted to provide visible reassurance that protective measures were being taken.


Critical reassurance


This was important for staff, also. In a crisis, staff giving customers credible messages is critical. Our presence gave them confidence that all was being done to keep customers and themselves safe – and a story to tell about precisely what was being done.


However, we have been using full hazmat PPE protection, including a respirator and taped body suit, when decontaminating the airport’s medical isolation pod. People who presented at the airport with COVID-19 symptoms were taken there to be assessed. These higher risk areas were treated with an appropriately higher degree of caution.


Risk-assessed process


Our COVID-19 decontamination procedures draw on our established protocols. All work is carried out according to rigorous risk assessments and method statements. We pay our teams a premium for the out-of-hours work, the skilled nature of what they do and in recognition of the additional hazards of extreme cleaning.


This touches on a critical point about the COVID-19 crisis. It’s clearly very important that the direct physiological threat caused by the virus must be countered. However, also of great significance is the wellbeing of all people involved.


www.tomorrowscleaning.com


I predict that when we look back at events, the social and mental health impact of the COVID-19 crisis will be considered just as important as impact on physical health. This is particularly relevant as we move into the social distancing phase.


Tens of thousands of people are already working from home. However, many organisations cannot do their essential work remotely – or it requires a skeleton staff in the workplace to manage critical processes.


Protecting essential services


Such organisations include emergency service providers, financial institutions that rely on secure digital networks, the NHS, military bases, schools looking after children of essential service workers, food retailers and data/ telecommunications centres.


We’re also talking to other businesses that will play a critical role over the weeks ahead in maintaining social and economic stability – food factories, warehouse and logistics companies and delivery specialists.


Lessons learned


Employers have a duty of care to consider the wellbeing of staff. There are already reports of people suffering anxiety and depression as a result of COVID-19. There will be a role for cleaning professionals helping to allay those legitimate fears, as well as protecting employers from claims of negligence when the crisis is over.


What are the lessons the cleaning industry can already learn from these early days of the COVID-19 crisis?


• Cleaning professionals will play an important role in combating COVID-19 – but must have the skill and experience to deal with serious health challenges.


• We need the right technology, products and PPE to carry out effective decontamination quickly and on a scale previously not envisaged.


• We need to be able to scale up rapidly to serve our customers and the wider public. We’re busy training new personnel, and others will be doing the same.


• Reassurance and supporting peoples’ mental wellbeing is a legitimate and important benefit, if the service delivered is also mechanically effective.


• We need to be able to respond dynamically to different phases of the crisis. For example, we need decontamination regimes that support skeleton teams or that can be deployed in workspaces that may need to be reopened multiple times during an extended crisis period, as the COVID-19 emergency has become.


• We will also be called upon to get organisations and people back to normality. When workplaces reopen, best practice indicates they need to be decontaminated to give assurance over COVID-19 and other viral and bacterial threats, either caused by human or animal pest activity.


www.thesafegroup.co.uk INFECTION CONTROL & PREVENTION | 37


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