Our planet Earth is experiencing a time when effective healthcare precautions matter a lot. As such, following the second lockdown in England, different regions have been split into various tiers and London has been placed in a high-level tier 2 alert. While workers are still encouraged to not attend the office unless absolutely necessary, some employees may still have to attend the office, which is why it is important that thorough disinfection of items is handled by office cleaning London experts to eradicate the threat of viruses/bacteria being passed on in the workplace.
This article provides an insight into the importance of regular cleaning and how offices in London can take effective action with effective healthcare precautions through thorough disinfection of items.
Disinfecting Common Office Items Reduces the Spread
Following a Forbes article, some studies claim that a computer keyboard packs 3,000 bacteria per square inch while a computer mouse packs an average of 1,600 bacteria. It is remarkable to think that such essential office items have high amounts of bacteria.
Think of the number of times that you are using the keyboard and mouse frequently throughout the day and then perhaps touch your face to scratch your nose innocently; unbeknownst to your own knowledge, you’d be smothering bacteria all over your face which can potentially cause fatal illnesses and diseases that you could be susceptible to.
At least by the end of your working day, it would be worthwhile using disinfecting wipes to clean your keyword, mouse, and monitor to prevent an accumulation of bacteria rapidly evolving. Wipe those items gently and clean the surfaces from top to bottom. To effectively kill off bacteria and disinfect your desktop, an alcohol-based disinfectant such as isopropyl is required which can be applied to a paper towel for the usage which can then be disposed of.
By regularly cleaning and disinfecting these items, it’ll go a long way to ensure that employees do not obtain unnecessary sicknesses and illnesses which can have a detrimental effect on business productivity levels.
Encourage Frequent Hand Washing
You can ensure effective healthcare precautions by encouraging hand washing and sanitizing. Every person in the business, including HR managers, employees, contractors, and customers should be urged to disinfect their hands.
Make sanitizing hand rub dispensers available in the entrances and keep them refilled regularly. Place posters that promote handwashing and restrict uncomplying people.
You can combine other means of communications such as health conferences, offering guidance from professional health/safety officers, and information from the internet to encourage hand-washing. In this manner, employees, contractors, and customers will learn not to hold items possibly infected and then spread viruses to others through direct hand-to-hand contact.
Use Diluted Bleach Solutions
If you can get EPA-approved products against viruses, including COVID-19, they are health-effective healthcare precautions. However, diluted household bleach solutions can be useful on the surfaces you place office items on.
Unless the bleaching solution is expired, it is recommended for use, especially outside the contract hours of an office cleaning London service.
Note that office cleaning services in London use industry-standard cleaning products. They may be willing to recommend products you could use for effective healthcare precaution from thorough disinfection of items in the office.
Meanwhile, a bleach with 5.25-8.25 percent of sodium hypochlorite is recommended. Outside of that range may not be effective.
Enforce the Use of Gloves
You should enforce the use of gloves in most parts of the office or the business building.
Also, people should not eat in the office and non-disposable food items should be handled with hot water and gloves. You can implement dishwashing with a dishwasher to enhance effective healthcare precautions in the various offices.
When taking out office garbage bags, gloves should be used to keep employees from contracting bacteria and viruses. Alternatively, the company may hire a waste management service to handle the task hygienically to promote healthiness in respective offices.
Using nitrile vs latex gloves is particularly important for disinfecting door handles and light switches because these items are susceptible to obtaining high amounts of bacteria considering different people will touch those items throughout the day and enhance effective healthcare precautions. A rather shocking thought as well is that people may even touch door handles and light switches after going to the toilet without even washing their hands.
It is recommended that door handles should be sprayed with stronger cleaning products such as bleach and then be left for a few minutes before rinsing. Due to the electrical nature and components of light switches, it’s a hazard to spray them directly with, but using a vinegar or alcohol solution can be rubbed around the appliance gently via a paper towel or cloth to rub-down the switch.
Any gloves that are used should be disposable gloves and after cleaning and disinfecting items thoroughly, people should wash their hands immediately.