The threat of the government’s work-from-home orders and temporary closures for covid-19 positive cases have both employers and employees on our toes. With increasing covid clusters manifesting in workplaces, it shows that just practicing good personal hygiene is not enough.
As we navigate this critical public health issue, we want to help businesses understand what they need to upkeep a safe and healthy workplace. This article will brief you thoroughly on how covid silently spreads without your employees being aware, how to prevent covid cases in your office, and a guide on when you should clean and disinfect your premises.
So how does Covid spread?
There are three main methods on how covid spreads itself among people.
- Human Interaction
- Airborne Molecules
- Surface Transmission
Human Interaction
The first method of spreading is commonly known by the mass public and WHO has actively promoted to the public how to prevent this. Common methods to avoid catching CoVID through human interaction are :
- Wearing a face mask at all times and preferably with a Bacteria Filtration Efficiency of 99%
- Sanitize your hands regularly
- Socially Distance of at least 1 meter with other people.
Airborne Molecules
The World Health Organization has confirmed that the CoVID-19 is airborne, but not in a way where it is able to travel freely throughout the air. Instead, the CoVID-19 virus attaches itself to water droplets or even water vapour.
These molecular-sized water vapour can remain in the air for a long time. For example, imagine the steam in your shower when you’re taking a hot shower, these steam is able to suspend in the air for an amount of time. You can prevent CoVID airborne transmission by :
- Wearing a face mask at all times and preferably with a Bacteria Filtration Efficiency of 99%
- Keep your premise well ventilated by opening the windows and turning on the fan.
- Use an Air Purifier.
- Hire a professional Air Fogging Service to kill existing airborne CoVID-19 viruses.
Surface Transmission
This is perhaps one of the hardest transmission to completely avoid when fighting against the CoVID-19 virus. The CoVID-19 virus is able to survive on surfaces for 5 days, with certain smooth surfaces like your phone screen for up to 28 days.
This gives the virus plenty of time to infect unaware individuals who happened to touch the infected surface. To prevent surface transmission of the coronavirus, you can :
- Regularly disinfect your household with disinfectants such as 90% alcohol-based sanitizers.
- Apply for antimicrobial disinfection coating treatment.
You may wonder what exactly is antimicrobial disinfection coating treatment. It’s a treatment process that coats all the surfaces within your premise with an auto-sanitizing chemical that continuously disinfect your surfaces for 365 days.
MGC Maintenance Services is the only company within Malaysia that provides a warranty for their antimicrobial coating treatment, where if after 6 months, the surfaces within your premise does not meet the hygiene levels similar to hospital standards, you are entitled to a completely free reapplication.
Now that you understand the coronavirus’ methods of transmission, let’s look at how you can protect your premise.
A guide to cleaning and disinfecting your office
- Use disposable gloves to prevent cross-contamination.
- Wear a face mask to protect yourself from directly inhaling the chemicals.
- Wear safety glasses to protect your eyes from accidental splashes.
- Ensure good ventilation through open windows, etc.
- Clean the surface with soap and water before disinfecting.
- Disinfect with bleach.
- If using disinfectant wipes, use at least one wipe for each item.
- Don’t mix cleaning chemicals.
- Clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces daily.
When to clean and when to disinfect?
The CDC defines cleaning as the removal of visible dirt while disinfecting kills non-sporous pathogenic microorganisms. When there have been no confirmed or suspected Covid-19 cases, it is enough to clean every day to reduce the risk of infections. However, if any of these certain situations apply, you may feel safer to disinfect as well after cleaning the surfaces:
- A high number of Covid-19 cases in your community,
- A low number of people wearing masks,
- Poor hand hygiene, or
- A high-risk population (young children, old people, etc.) is present in the space.
If there has been a confirmed positive case in the last 24 hours, employers must clean and disinfect the office before letting in other employees.
Social distancing measures
Though many companies have begun to implement remote work, certain industries are still required to attend physical work. This brings forth a need for certain social distancing protocols.
- Implement flexible hours and work shifts.
- Map out employees’ seating arrangements, and avoid hot-desking.
- Limit sharing spaces, including the pantry and rest areas.
- Utilize signage for one-way hallways and staircases.
- Conduct virtual meetings in the office to avoid packed conference rooms.
- Invest in touch-free doors and switches to reduce surface contamination.
There’s no doubt that life pre-covid looked a lot different than the current days. We hope that you’ve gained a further understanding on how to keep your office safe during the coronavirus pandemic. Both employers and employees must improve their discipline in maintaining social distancing and practice good hygiene at all times. Additionally, employers need to adapt to the new norm by hiring an in-house team or look for external sources like MGC Maintenance Services to ensure a clean and healthy working environment. Our microbial control and sanitization service help keep the microorganism population at an acceptable level. Contact us today for a safer office space.