Continuing the COVID clean-up
The work of cleaning professionals has been pivotal in the battle against COVID-19 – and will remain so during 2021, says Steve Broughton, Founder of SafeGroup.
needed expert support that would do two things: give staff, customers and regulators assurance that action was being taken; also, that the action taken was demonstrably effective and safely applied.
We could offer the latest electrostatic spray disinfection system, and we also had evidence that it worked against COVID-19. It’s no surprise that one of our first COVID-19 customers was an airport, seeking to maintain services as tens of thousands of passengers travelled into and out of the United Kingdom.
What makes the COVID-19 pandemic so challenging is also what makes it fascinating. It’s impacting on our lives at so many levels, and in so many ways.
As the founder of an emergency soft FM and waste management company, we have been immersed in the crisis from day one – working out how best to help our customers and the many new ones who have called daily.
I also studied biology at university. My dissertation was about viruses and immunology, so I have followed the science about COVID-19, or the SARS-CoV-2 virus or Coronavirus as it’s also known, with more than just professional interest from the start.
There has been a global pandemic crisis about once a decade for the last 100 years. Most viruses are deadly and hard to contract or not very deadly and easy to contract. COVID-19 sits between the two.
We are all struggling, scientists included, to understand how we have got to where we are, and what will happen next.
I hope you don’t mind me sharing an overview of my perspective on events, and implications for the cleaning and FM industry and wider society, as COVID-19 has smashed its way through our lives during 2020. From our perspective there are a number of key stages.
First three months
It’s already difficult to say precisely when the COVID-19 crisis began. 23 March is when we went into the first lockdown. As a business, we were already getting calls for help before then, but the first lockdown was the event that ignited the crisis.
We were already in a good position to support our customers. For the last decade we have been experts in biohazard cleaning, and we have the knowledge and systems needed to tackle deadly viruses safely. Long before March 2020, we had invested heavily in extra and new equipment and disinfectant products, and moved quickly to source adequate supplies of high quality personal protective equipment (PPE).
When the crisis really hit, as the cliché goes, our switchboard lit up. Customers quickly recognised they
44 | FEATURE Next six months
As the first lockdown continued over the summer, the cleaning industry came under the spotlight. Media and public interest was focused on medical teams in the NHS, but cleaning teams in healthcare and other settings were also on the COVID-19 frontline. I hope one of the lasting legacies of the COVID-19 pandemic will be greater respect for cleaning professionals.
As the lockdown was lifted, public organisations and companies turned increasingly to specialists like SafeGroup to support their in-house teams. Concerns about mental health wellbeing began to drive disinfection decision-making alongside COVID-19 transmission risks. A more sophisticated understanding of workplace cleaning has emerged.
Also emerging were new companies offering COVID-19 decontamination services. Pest control companies suddenly became biohazard cleaning specialists. There is definitely a place for the best of these new entrants, if they can deliver on their promises. But over the summer and into the autumn, my impression is that many of these new COVID-19 experts have fallen away.
As the crisis has continued, key service users – including schools, retailers, manufacturers, hotels and hospitality providers, and transport companies – have realised they need help from experts with a proven track record and expertise. That includes being able to devise disinfection protocols suitable for the many different ways, based on commercial and operational priorities, customers have approached COVID-19.
The test and trace programme has also been an important driver of specialist COVID-19 cleaning services. In the past, if an employee got a nasty virus, such as the flu, they might stay at work infecting others, or recover at home, in effect in secret. Test and trace has shed light on the infection process. Employers alerted about a COVID-19 case must take action.
Next 18 months
The cleaning response is being driven by three factors: preventing transmission, reassuring employees, customers and the public, and the need to protect reputations.
twitter.com/TomoCleaning
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70
