Guide to Reopening: Disinfecting Public Spaces, and Schools

Whether you own a business, operate a school, or manage a small office, you’ll want to ensure the business’s cleanliness and safety. Reopening your business requires things that may be new to you or your employees regarding cleaning and disinfecting. Along with social distancing and practicing daily habits, you can do your part in reducing exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19 as well as other contagious illnesses. To ensure you are reopening safely and effectively, here are few tips to help you focus on cleaning, disinfecting, and opening safely.

Create a Plan

One of the first and most essential steps for reopening is to have a plan. A well-designed plan will help you reduce the risk of exposure of COVID-19 by thoroughly cleaning and disinfecting the public areas of your business. Carefully evaluate your workplace, business, or school to determine the surfaces and materials in the area. The majority of objects and surfaces may only need regular routine cleaning. Still, frequently touched surfaces, such as doorknobs and light switches, will need to be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected to reduce the risk of viruses, germs, and bacteria on objects and surfaces. When creating your plan, consider any items that can be removed or relocated to reduce handling by multiple people. For instance, soft and porous materials, such as seating, may be stored to reduce the challenges with cleaning and disinfecting them.

Determine What to Clean

For many businesses, some surfaces may only need to be cleaned with soap and hot water. For instance, if your business has been closed for longer than seven days and there haven’t been any employees or customers inside the building, areas that weren’t frequently touched can be cleaned with soap and water. However, surfaces and objects that were often touched must be cleaned and disinfected. For optimum results and to ensure that all spaces are properly disinfected, it is best to have a professional company like Safe Spray do the disinfecting for you.

Basic Framework for Cleaning and Disinfecting

Regular, routine cleaning with quality soap and hot water will help decrease the amount of the virus on objects and surfaces, reducing the risk of exposure. Some things to keep in mind include:

Disinfection must be done with EPA-approved disinfectants against COVID-19. These disinfectants reduce the risk of contamination, and frequent disinfection of objects and surfaces after reopening is essential to prevent the risk of reintroducing contamination.

If you do not have access to EPA-approved disinfectants, alternative disinfectants, such as bleach/water or 70% alcohol solutions, may be used. It is important that you not mix bleach with other disinfecting products because the mixture can be hazardous and cause respiratory problems. Bleach and water solution is effective for disinfection up to 24 hours.

A few things to keep in mind before and after reopening: Coronaviruses on objects and surfaces will naturally die within a few hours to a few days in warmer temperatures. Exposure to sunlight may reduce the time the virus lives on hard surfaces and objects. Standard cleaning with soap and water will remove germs and dirt from the surface, lowering the risk of spreading the virus. However, for optimum results, disinfectants should be used to kill germs on surfaces. By killing the germs, you will further lower the risk of spreading infection. Also, keep in mind that the best way to thoroughly disinfect the workplace, schools, or businesses is professional disinfection.