How Professional Cleaners Adapted to the Pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has changed our lives forever in 2020 as many people have been furloughed from their jobs, or worse, they have been made redundant. Even people with jobs have found that their lives have been turned upside down as they are now working from home rather than commuting to their offices. For professional cleaners, the change has been even starker, as they now have more work than ever trying to prevent the evil virus from spreading throughout the places that they clean, such as shops, supermarkets and public transport. This has meant that they have had to adapt what they do in order to keep the dastardly virus at bay. In this article, we are going to take a look at how they have adapted, so if you are interested to find out more, then read on. 

PPE

The coronavirus pandemic came out of the blue at the beginning of the year as one minute we were getting on with our lives as normal, and the next the world was shut down, confining us to our homes. For professional cleaners, this meant that they were on the frontline, trying to stop the virus from spreading. Scientists have discovered that the virus can cling to a variety of surfaces, staying alive for up to a week, so the first step that professional cleaners had to take was to protect themselves from the virus. Nobody can afford to take risks with the mortality rate being so high, so the only way cleaners could ensure their personal safety was to wear full personal protective equipment (PPE) whilst they were working. For the majority of us, PPE means wearing a facemask, but for cleaners, this isn’t sufficient as they need to protect their hands and eyes from the virus too. In particularly virulent areas a full hazmat suit can be necessary whereas, in less risky areas, gloves, a mask and a visor are recommended. Whatever a cleaner decides to wear, their job has certainly changed forever. 

Disinfection

In a previous life, we used to disinfect surfaces that we knew were dirty, for example, when we handled raw meat in a kitchen it was normal to thoroughly disinfect the work surfaces and also our hands. Well, now this is completely insufficient if we want to keep the virus at bay. Professional cleaners now have to thoroughly disinfect every single item that we could possibly touch as remnants of the virus could survive. It may sound like overkill, but in order to ensure everyone’s safety, it is absolutely paramount for every cleaning company to comply with these new requirements. Public transport, for example, sees thousands of people sharing a train carriage or a bus together, so every last surface must be disinfected using a strong detergent, and this must be done on a daily basis. It is imperative to maintain the public’s trust, and professional cleaners are at the forefront of this battle.

Take preventative measures

It is all very well making sure that everything is thoroughly cleaned after it has been touched by human hands, but what about ensuring that the virus can’t survive on surfaces before it is spread? This idea was unheard of before the pandemic but it is now gaining traction due to the absolute need for vigilance. One option is to apply a coating to surfaces that break down microbes as soon as they touch them, in effect making the surfaces capable of self cleaning. It works by reacting with light, so in sunny, or well-lit rooms this is an excellent way of keeping the virus at bay, although it isn’t so useful in dark areas. On public transport or in hotel rooms that see a lot of light, for example, this is an excellent way of mitigating against the virus and trying to stay one step ahead of it. 

As we have discovered, the world of professional cleaning has been turned upside down by the coronavirus, as cleaners are at the forefront of our battle against its spread. Left unchecked the virus will kill millions of us so cleaners have had to adapt to this harsh new reality. In order to protect themselves, it is necessary for cleaners to wear full PPE as they will be working in the exact places where the virus is likely to cling to surfaces and infect people. Disinfection has become paramount on all surfaces that are touched by humans and it has now become necessary to take preventative measures by applying products that will actively kill any microbes when they come into contact with surfaces that have had this coating applied. So, raise a glass to the cleaners that are helping to keep the world as safe as possible.