During this time, you can put procedures and training into place now that help prevent exposures.
Considering the fluid situation regarding COVID-19, schools should remain vigilant in monitoring the most up-to-date safety, infection control, and cleaning protocols recommended by global experts. It’s prudent to take a pro-active approach to the facility cleaning before or after confirmed cases in the area.
During this time, you can put measures into place now that help prevent exposures through enhanced cleaning. These include:
- Providing hygiene and safety products: Prevention is key to curbing the spread of any virus. Disinfectants for frequently touched surfaces can help reduce potential exposures when used as part of your regular cleaning service. Newly approved chemicals have been released to clean for suspected or known COVID-19. Many of these products are already being used at our client sites.
- Using the right disinfectants, the right way: Making the switch from all-purpose cleaners to EPA-registered disinfectants that have qualified for use against SARS-CoV-2 may help curb the spread of pathogens if appropriately employed, by:
- Using disinfecting procedures and products for high touch surfaces
- Employing PPE, plus reusable cleaning cloths wherever possible with disinfectants such as Diversey’s Oxivir, Virex, or Alpha-HP
- Training employees in disinfection best practices on an ongoing basis
- More frequent cleaning: Beyond employing the above measures, it’s key to increase the frequency of cleanings. An observation of your building’s traffic patterns in relation to occupancy levels is key to determining what should be cleaned and how often.
Changes to operational procedures and training are also important to adopt during this crisis. We recommend you implement new standard operating procedures in place with work instructions in multiple languages for teams to follow for disinfecting high touch, high traffic areas for the industries we serve. This means that for sites with non-confirmed cases, you can switch to disinfectants from general cleaners, or change the frequency of work currently being performed at your site.
For any sites with a confirmed case, we have instructed our teams to notify our Safety and Operations Management immediately. ABM is following CDC guidance on the 24-hour minimum waiting period (48 hours wherever possible) to complete a site hazard assessment to ensure that our teams are informed, trained, and have the appropriate PPE and supplies.
We are all in this together. Visit our Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Information Center, or our frequently asked questions for additional resources.
