Despite all your best efforts, you’ve discovered that one of your staff has tested positive for Covid-19 and has been at the office. What do you do? Look to the CDC’s guidelines for how to mitigate exposure at your business. Don’t panic. Follow these steps to handle office Covid-19 exposure and ensure your employees can return to work safely.
Identify And Contain
Completely shutting down is not an option for all businesses, and the CDC states that containment and partial closure of just affected areas is sufficient. Once you have identified the person or persons who have suspected or confirmed Covid-19, close off all areas where they have been for 24 hours. Increase ventilation to the area by opening windows and use fans to help circulate the air. If possible, wait 24 hours before cleaning and disinfecting, or as long as you can.
Clean The Contaminated Area
Start by cleaning the contaminated area. Remember to use the proper order of cleaning to reduce cross contamination, like we discussed here. You can also provide your cleaning staff with an Office Cleaning Checklist. First, turn off in-room/window-mounted HVAC to prevent contamination inside these units. Centralized HVAC should remain on, however, as it typically has high level of filtration and also circulate outside air through the system. You can close the vents and turn off any fans inside the contaminated area to prevent air from flowing into the centralized system. Then, it’s time clean!
Clean all hard surfaces to remove dirt and particles. The goal is to prepare the contaminated area so it is ready for disinfection. In the case of office Covid-19 exposure, specifically, you’ll want to use HEPA filtration in vacuums for cleaning the floor, and follow with mopping where needed.
Disinfection Of Contaminated Area
Once the space is thoroughly cleaned, you can disinfect. Your regular cleaning staff can take on this task, just be sure they are trained in proper procedures according to CDC recommendations. Training should include what disinfecting solutions to use, dilution if necessary, and when/how to use PPE (personal protective equipment), and disposal. Traditional disinfecting methods are effective, however they are labor intensive and leave room for human error. If you want to save time and money, consider electrostatic disinfecting service. The fine mist disinfecting spray blankets all of those hard to reach surfaces. We can completely disinfect an area in less than half the time of wiping.
We know that an office Covid-19 exposure can be stressful. It’s important to have policies and procedures in place beforehand, so you know exactly what to do. The CDC puts out great resources for handling these situations. Then, give Virus Assassins a call. Not only can we help keep your office regularly disinfected on a weekly or monthly basis, but we can come in after an exposure/shut down and take care of disinfection for you. Our service is much faster and more effective than traditional wiping methods. Contact us today to find out more about electrostatic disinfection and how it can give you peace of mind.