The 2019-novel coronavirus or Covid-19 has spread quickly across China and into other countries, including the United States and Canada. As the disease spreads, it’s critical to understand how to protect communities by preventing its spread. For more information, it is recommended to follow updates from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
Covid-19 Facts
It’s critical to understand the facts about Covid-19 to help prevent its spread in any facility.
The virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person, between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet), through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs.
- Symptoms may appear as few as two days or as many as 14 days after exposure.
- This coronavirus can affect people of any age; older people and those with preexisting medical conditions, like asthma or heart disease, may be more vulnerable to developing severe symptoms.
- Healthcare workers and others who have close contact with Covid-19 patients will have a higher risk of infection.
- Antibiotics cannot prevent or treat Covid-19.
- There are currently no medications available to prevent or treat this coronavirus.
- Disinfectants kill a wider range of microorganisms than sanitizers.
- The illness causes a range of symptoms, including fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties, pneumonia, kidney failure, and death.
- It appears people showing no symptoms may be able to spread the virus.
- The best way to prevent illness is to avoid being exposed to this virus.
Preventing the Spread of the Virus
Individuals can protect themselves and help prevent the spread of Covid-19 with good hand, respiratory and safe food hygiene. Facility managers can also play an important role in protecting people and their work community against the coronavirus. It’s essential to implement consistent and proper cleaning and disinfection procedures with products shown to kill the virus.
According to the CDC website, the best preventative measures are to follow the facility’s standard procedures for routine cleaning and disinfecting. Special emphasis should be placed on sanitizing surfaces and objects that are touched often, such as desks, countertops, doorknobs, computer keyboards, faucet handles, toilets, phones, etc.
St. Louis Cleaning & Restoration Can Help
St. Louis Cleaning & Restoration now offers specialized cleaning services for facilities that experience an outbreak or would like to take a proactive cleanup approach. Heres how:
- An EPA-registered disinfectant is applied to surfaces. This product is proven to kill the Human Coronavirus strain through an electrostatic sprayer and ULV (Ultra Low Volume) Fogger. However, this would only apply to the current state of the facility and would not guarantee protection for future contamination if an infected person entered the building.
- Electrostatic spray technology is used to apply cleaners, sanitizers, and disinfectants to help facilities treat surfaces, often in less time and with better coverage than traditional cleaning methods.
Electrostatic sprayers work by charging liquids (i.e., cleaners, sanitizers, and disinfectants) as they pass through a sprayer nozzle. This generates charged droplets that repel one another and actively seek environmental surfaces, which they stick to and even wrap around to coat all sides. The result is a uniform coating of sanitizer or disinfectant on sprayed objects, including hard-to-reach areas that manual cleaning can miss.
The technology also helps attack the respiratory droplets carried in the air by atomizing the particles. This method ensures all desks, chairs, contents, walls, floor, ceiling and other structure items along with the indoor air environment are treated.
Contact or dwell times for the products used range from 5 to 10 minutes depending on the surface. This may result in a light film being left behind which can be simply wiped off with routine cleaning practices without affecting the product’s efficacy. Our technicians would wear proper PPE consistent with the severity of the situation and the product applied.
About St. Louis Cleaning & Restoration
St. Louis Cleaning & Restoration has been providing quality residential and commercial cleaning and restoration services since 1991. These services include water damage restoration, fire damage restoration, mold remediation and removal, trauma and crime scene cleanup, and more.
For more information on their COVID-19 services, contact:
Kevin Picha, WRT, SRT, ASD
Vice President, St. Louis Cleaning & Restoration
(314)369-4772 direct * (314)428-3600 office* kpicha@stlcandr.com
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