As well are all well aware by now, COVID-19 spreads from person to person through small droplets, aerosols and through direct contact. It can also be spread through surfaces and belongings that have been contaminated with COVID-19 when infected people cough or sneeze on them. We also know that the risk of coronavirus spreading is much greater indoors and when people are closer together, especially in places or venues when people spend a lot of time together in the same room.
Unsurprisingly, this means that high street retailers like clothes shops or banks are at a high risk of coronavirus spreading, whether between customers and employees, on surfaces or on products or screens. Places like these are busy and have a lot of ‘touchpoints’ at risk of being COVID hotspots, for examples clothes that people touch but don’t buy, hand rails on stairs or escalators, and screens and card machines.
‘Freedom day’ finally came into to fruition on the 19th of July and rules around social distancing and mask wearing relaxed. However, even though so many of us are vaccinated against the virus now, as the news has shown we are all still at risk from spreading the virus. Although case numbers have fallen in the past week, we are still yet to see the results of ‘freedom day’ reflected in the case numbers and businesses should do all they can to keep themselves safe, clean and open for business.
For non-healthcare settings where the daily public footfall is high, for example high street retailers, the government have produced some guidelines around cleaning and keeping the venues safe in order to help business owners. This includes, as standard practice, increasing the frequency of cleaning, using standard cleaning products such as detergents and bleach and paying attention to all surfaces, but especially ones that are touched frequently.These surfaces should be wiped down twice a day as minimum, and one of these should be at the beginning or end of the working day. The frequency of cleaning should be more depending on the number of people using the space, whether they are entering or exiting the setting and dependent on the access to hand washing and hand sanitising facilities. These are the daily guidelines for non-healthcare settings when there has been no confirmed case of COVID-19.
The guidance for businesses such as shops where an individual with symptoms of, or a confirmed case of COVID-19 has passed through, is unsurprisingly, more thorough and requires more time, effort, knowledge and equipment. For example, if there is a confirmed case, all surfaces that person may have touched should be cleaned, as well as disinfected, this includes all door handles, screens or handrails. All hard surfaces, i.e. chairs, floors, sanitary fittings, must also be throughly cleaned and disinfected. The government also recommends a specific formula of cleaning products to get the best results, and, in places like clothes shops or where they may be a sofa or upholstery that could be infected, these will require a thorough steam cleaning.
For many businesses the time, resources and expertise required to complete all of this cleaning when there has been a confirmed case or symptoms is too difficult to complete themselves and without outside help if they want to remain open every day. For many businesses shutting during key opening hours is also not financially viable, having been shut for so many months over the past year and a half.
One option many businesses are turning to is completing their deep clean overnight in order to reopen in time for normal business hours the next day. At Remora we are fully prepared to provide this service for a range of high street retailers that require our assistance, and we are already working with JD Sports, Natwest, Barclays and many more to help them keep safe, clean and open every day. The retailers we work with already rely on us to provide a thorough, diligent and high-quality clean that leaves them with peace of mind that their work space is safe for their employees and the public.
For more information on our services contact us here.