We all know how the coronavirus has affected our lives.
With the spread becoming more and more severe, understanding the details about how to maintain a safe and clean house is essential.
This understanding becomes crucial if an area is suspected to be contaminated by the virus. The disease can quickly spread just through having contact with a contaminated surface and then touching the eyes, nose, or mouth.
The coronavirus can live outside a host for many hours.
Without proper cleanup after COVID-19 contamination, the risk of disease spread from that surface rises tremendously.
The following are some tips to help you understand how to disinfect:
Types of service
If your workplace is a school or a daycare center that does not house people in the night then:
- Restrict entry for areas that are contaminated by an infected person. Wait for at least 24 hours before covid cleaning experts begin disinfecting to avoid infected droplets. It is even better to ventilate the area before cleaning.
- When cleaning, focus on the items that are most contacted like handles, doors, and switchboards.
If your workplace holds people overnight such as hotels, dorm rooms then:
- Contact your local officials to provide temporary housing to the sick person and isolate all the people who have come into contact with the ill person.
- Follow the CDC guidelines and disinfect the positive person’s room after 24 hours.
Issues that may arise
When you find that someone working for your business is infected by the virus, it is generally a good measure to shut down the business for 14 days.
Asking all the staff members who are in contact with a Covid-19 positive individual to self-quarantine for a fortnight will reduce the diseases spread.
However, this is not possible because with the increased number of cases the businesses can’t close. Instead, following the disinfection checklist discretely or hiring a sterilization service for cleanup after COVID-19 contamination is the most likely option to be chosen.
The challenge becomes severe in cases of airplanes and cruise ships. Though the passengers have to go through the screening tests before boarding a plane or ship, the results can come back negative even if the person is infected. In such cases, disinfection these airplanes and cruise ships that have carried infected persons becomes a tedious task. The issue is challenging because companies have to decide on how to clean the long lists of galleys, deck areas, entertainment venues, and so on.
The COVID cleaning checklist
To help you clean up after COVID-19 contamination, here is a simple checklist.
How to clean
- Using soap water before you start disinfection will provide additional safety.
- For effective cleaning, bleaching solutions and alcohol solutions with a 75% alcohol percentage can be used.
- Make sure that the expiry date of the bleach has not passed. Additionally, do not mix this bleaching solution with any other liquids. Dilute it with just water before disinfecting the surface.
- Handle the laundry of the infected person with utmost care. Take the clothes outside by holding them away from yourself.
- Clean these laundries with high-temperature settings in your washing machine. Ensure to disinfect the laundry basket after taking away the clothes.
Personal protection
Although it is important to quickly clean up after COVID-19 contamination, you cannot compromise your safety. Follow these steps to protect yourself while cleaning.
- Always cover your face with a mask so that any contaminated droplets will not infect you. Wear gloves before you start. Dispose of these gloves before touching your face.
- In case you cannot find gloves, keep sanitizing your hands every 10 minutes and avoid touching your face or any other safe surfaces before washing your hands with disinfectant soap. It is better to tie your hands with a plastic bag instead of using bare hands while cleaning.
- Take additional security measures based on the type and power of the disinfectant soaps and solutions you are using.
- When you are in a contaminated site, clean your hands before you eat anything, and after using the washroom, even if you are not disinfecting to avoid the risk of exposure.
- In case of a tear in your mask or gloves, immediately contact your supervisor or a hospital to report the issue and get tested to make sure you are not infected. However, do not convince the hospital staff to admit you if you are not in a grave situation as you may take up beds from people who are seriously affected by the virus.
- Ensure that you clean a place that has been properly ventilated for at least 24 hours so that the risk of infection is reduced.
- If you are disinfecting the room in which a covid positive person is staying, limit your contact to as minimum as possible. Do not go anywhere close to 6 feet from the sick person. Open the windows while cleaning. If possible, move the ill person to another room carefully before cleaning to avoid getting the virus.
Sometimes, Cleanup after COVID-19 contamination by yourself can be a quite difficult and dangerous task. Improper handling of the disinfectant solutions will cause serious injuries such as burns and rashes as these solutions are highly concentrated. Whereas not using a bleaching solution that is not strong enough will not kill the virus.
