Should professional COVID19 cleaning be part of my planned maintenance?

With the reopening of more retail shops, schools, hotels and the imminent opening of hair salons, cafes, restaurants and pubs, a lingering tension is left on everyone’s mind. How do I decrease the spread of COVID19 in my workplace? Of course, the usual protocol of hand washing, social distancing and hygiene practices, and the use of PPE should be vigorously enforced. But what if this is not enough? As we know, COVID19 can infect patients through airborne transmission.

Droplets will mostly fall out of the air within a short space. However, these devilish little droplets can reduce in size and travel even further, and this is particularly prevalent in badly ventilated spaces. This is precisely why you should pay extra attention to sanitising all of the surfaces inside your building, including those you cannot see such as the ventilation inlet points, and ducts.

What is duct cleaning? 

Duct cleaning is a broad description that includes the cleaning of kitchen extract systems, laundry extract systems, air handling units (AHU’s), ventilation systems and extract grilles. Left to their own devices for too long they can be filled with unimaginable amounts of grease, dust, bugs, vermin, odours, bacteria, mould and impurities. It can really be your worst nightmare, but proactive maintenance is key. Yes, it is a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it.

“I don’t have any ducts”

 

Now you may be thinking this isn’t relevant to me, perhaps you don’t have any air ducts or extracts, or they were cleaned and certified recently – but the reason we are highlighting the importance of duct cleaning during this uncertain time is that it hasn’t been reported on enough. During the peak of the pandemic, a report of swabs taken by exhaust vents in a room occupied by infected patients tested positive, along with toilet extract grilles too. Admittedly this is report was from a concentrated situation, and there is much debate about how long the virus is active, how far it travels, and how we should be distanced to prevent contamination, but while this rages on, the situation is very real.

Pro-duct Clean have been COVID cleaning NHS hospital operating theatres, hotels and schools during the last 10 weeks, alongside the general maintenance of their kitchen extracts and ducting, we have even swab tested surfaces for the virus too. Just a handful of establishment types, it’s scary to think about how many possible opportunities are going to be missed at a general public level to stop the spread of infections in the coming weeks. With the opening up of face-to-face business and increased movement across the nation, it is inevitable we will see a resurgence of the virus.

The government contact tracing is enough to swiftly close your doors again, especially with limited staffing, can you really afford to not take every action possible to minimise risk?

For some, duct cleaning isn’t just a case of whether you ‘should’ it’s a ‘must’

In businesses that have commercial kitchens and laundry extracts, cleaning and certifying is a must – a no dice situation where hygiene and fire safety are concerned. Such tasks are often found lurking at the bottom of a managers to do list, but there are huge risks at stake for those businesses found to be flouting the regulations.

Even during this time of closure, uncertified is negligent. We’ve been encouraging our network to use this time to get COVID cleaned, certification up-to-date and back in line with the guidelines for health and safety, safe cleaning methodology and hazard and fault awareness. We hope that we have shed some light on the world of large-scale hygiene cleaning and how you could translate this into your own business situation.

Professional COVID cleaning should be part of your planned maintenance for now at least. It is relatively inexpensive, and quick to do, and it is something your customers and building users would expect you to be doing on a regular basis. If you want to get the ball rolling contact us.

From our humble base on the Essex/Suffolk border, we have been cleaning ducts, kitchen extracts and hygiene cleaning for over a decade. We’ve seen the in’s and out’s of top London hotels, hospitals, schools and universities, and the local pub and takeaway just down the road. We are here for everyone, Pro-duct Clean are here for you.