The Importance Of Office Disinfection After The Pandemic

By Edward Bishop

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a global impact on mainstream business organizations around the world. All businesses have the same goal of earning profit while ensuring their employees’ safety, health, and comfort. Therefore, it has become crucial for companies to adapt to the post-covid changes of the pandemic to run their business operations with complete safety. 

With that, office disinfection has become an essential task for businesses after the pandemic in order to operate safely again.

Government Rules And Mandate On Disinfection

Several government bodies have given guidelines to businesses that include details on disinfecting and sanitizing their office along with consistent hand washing. This particular measure has been taken to enhance the hand hygiene of the employees and clients. 

A few bodies also offer proper guidance along with information on choosing and using the right disinfecting chemicals and methods that every business should follow.

What Businesses Are Doing? 

Now, businesses are taking all the necessary steps to disinfect and sanitize their offices to keep their employees and customers safe in an efficient manner. For instance, offices have adapted to the similar air purification technology that is used for residential disinfection. In fact, air purification has become one of the topmost priorities for both residential and commercial disinfection purposes to ensure optimal safety for everyone. You can take a glance at this site to know more about residential disinfection while we discuss the importance of disinfection in the office.

Now, let’s move on to the fundamental aspects of why disinfection has become so important after the pandemic. 

Key Importance Of Office Disinfection After The Pandemic 

  • Purifying The Air

The virus responsible for causing covid-19, SARS-CoV-2, spreads like a bio-aerosol. The various mechanisms of generating such bio-aerosol, including breathing, sneezing, talking, coughing, etc., settle out of the office air in no less than 2m and within 15 minutes. However, there are exceptions to these numerical figures. This is why creating a safe office workplace with proper disinfection has become more crucial. For this specific purpose, most offices adopt air purification techniques to follow the best safety protocols. 

  • Safety In Touch-Surfaces

As you know, the coronavirus is quite fragile, and reports suggest and claim that it can persevere on hard surfaces. Whether it’s a porous or non-porous surface, the virus persists on it for minutes to hours, increasing the chances of it getting transferred from hand-to-hand or hand-to-body, thus increasing the risk of infection. 

According to the World Health Organization, the lipids that act as the coating of the genetic aspect of the coronavirus can be easily disrupted with proper disinfection and sanitization. This is why disinfecting the hard-touch surfaces in the workplace has become crucial for businesses. 

  • To Prevent Infection At Meeting Or Event

Your office can be at risk as people attending the meeting or an event in your workplace may unwillingly carry the virus. In addition, some new personnel may be unknowingly exposed to the virus. Even if it’s a mild disease, it can make some people very ill, leading to hospitalization. So, you cannot take those chances for your employees. Thus, disinfecting your office before and after the meeting or events is important for a safe workplace environment.

  • Healthy Employees Ensure High Productivity

With a proper and regular office disinfection program, you will be able to control the amount of illness spreading in your workplace. While working in a clean, hygienic and virus-free environment, your employees will barely fall sick, leading to fewer sick leaves in the office. This means your staff will focus better on their daily work operations, ensuring higher productivity and better results.

  • Ensures A Safe, Reliable Environment For Customers And Staffs

After the pandemic, it will be challenging for businesses to bring customers to their workplace after all the traumatizing deaths and events. The only way to attract them is by ensuring the best disinfection, cleaning, and sanitization practices in your workplace. This will instil a safe and reliable environment for both customers and staff, enabling them to visit your office and engage in their professional activities.

Primary Surfaces To Clean/Disinfect In Your Office

Every business must do regular sanitization and disinfection of the high-contact surface in their workplace. They should disinfect the surfaces like countertops, door handles, and switches using the WHO-approved EPAs List N: disinfectants against SARS-CoV-2.

Businesses can also reduce these high contact areas by implementing self-opening doors, but it may become expensive after such a setback in the pandemic. It is unnecessary to disinfect the outdoor surfaces like sidewalks with disinfecting agents as the routine cleaning with hot water and soap can be more than enough.

Some of the primary surfaces that will need regular disinfection services in your office are:

  •       Doorknobs
  •       Toilets
  •       Countertops
  •       Desks Phones
  •       Computer, Tablet ,And Laptops
  •       Gas Pump Handles
  •       ATM machines
  •       Faucets and sinks
  •       Handles
  •       Light Switches
  •       Keyboards
  •       Tables and chairs
  •       Touch screens and many more

Depending on the occupancy of your workplace, you can decide the frequency of disinfecting these primary high-contact areas in your workplace. If it’s too clumsy with lots of clients and employees, ensure to direct it twice or thrice in shifts.

For instance, your business can use an aerosol sanitizing spray in the bathroom and ask everyone with the help of a placard outside stating to use the spray when they leave the bathroom. However, if too many people cluster in your workplace, you will need a janitor to keep disinfecting these surfaces more often.

Key Disinfecting Products That Every Business Should Use

With so many disinfecting products in the market, choosing the right one for your workplace is crucial to ensure the best effectiveness and safety. The List N: disinfectants against SARS-CoV-2 by the US Environmental Protection Agency has provided ample guidance on the right disinfectants for use in workplaces.

  • The recommended concentration of bleach or chlorine must be 0.1%.
  • Alcohol-based disinfecting products must have 70-90% of ethyl composition in it.
  • You must use disinfectants stored in well-ventilated, covered, opaque containers.
  • Consumer-sized aerosol spray cleaner with a clean cloth is a suitable surface cleaning method.

Final Thoughts

This guide will provide all insightful details on the importance of disinfecting workplaces after the pandemic. It will help the business community to be aware of the significance and essence of sanitization and disinfection to reduce the spread of this virus and make a safe, comfortable office environment. Every business, including yours, must follow the best-trusted guidelines to keep their offices disinfected for the best safety standards.

You may be interested in: 4 Reasons Deep Cleaning Is Important During COVID-19