With the increasing number of businesses returning to work or planning their return, it is critical to understand the cleaning regimes or processes required to support a COVID-19 secure workplace.
Your COVID-19 audit will need to provide evidence of what processes and procedures have been implemented, in all cases this will be determined by your COVID-19 Risk Assessments. To be clear this is not about simply stepping up your normal cleaning regime in terms of frequency or taking longer to clean than normal.
Each business activity and the environment that your staff and visitors are exposed to needs to be analysed to determine the appropriate level of cleaning and the frequency required. Hand washing and hand sanitising is additional to this guidance and is critical in terms of reducing potential transmission. Please continue to reinforce this message in the workplace.
All businesses will be different, and you should contact Park City if you have any doubts about how to interpret and implement changes to your normal cleaning process.
The Government has released new guidance, as of July 15th, to better explain the principles and practical steps required for cleaning outside home environments.
COVID-19: cleaning of non-healthcare settings outside the home
This guidance covers the cleaning of environments outside the home. Guidance updated with advice on cleaning and waste management that does not relate to a suspected or confirmed case, taking into account current levels of community transmission.
Latest Update: 11:59 am, 15 July 2020 Please note: this guidance is of a general nature.
Employers should consider the specific conditions of individual places of work and comply with all applicable legislation, including the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The risk of coronavirus (COVID-19) infection depends on many factors, including:
- the type of surface contaminated
- the amount of virus shed by the individual
- the time the individual spent in the setting
- the time since the individual was last in the setting
Surfaces and belongings can be contaminated with COVID-19 when people who are infectious cough or sneeze or touch them.
Transmission of COVID-19 can occur when someone else then touches the contaminated surface or item. The person may become infected if they touch their nose, eyes or mouth with a contaminated hand or object. Increased frequency of cleaning of general room surfaces reduces the presence of the virus and the risk of contact.
The infection risk from a COVID-19-contaminated environment decreases over time. It is not yet clear at what point there is no risk from the virus, however, studies suggest that, in non-healthcare settings, the risk of residual infectious virus is likely to be significantly reduced after 48 hours.
In situations where someone has symptoms of COVID-19, we continue to advise storing personal waste for 72 hours as an additional precaution.
Please refer to the Gov.uk website for detailed advice and guidance.
For those who benefit from Park City’s Health and Safety service, we are here to help please call us, we will include this as part of our remote COVID-19 audit. For those who are not enjoying the support of our H&S team, please contact our office and we can discuss how we can support and assist you at this time.
