Touchpoint Sanitation is Here to Stay

01 March 2021
Anonymous
Touchpoint Sanitation is Here to Stay

Since the start of the CVOID-19 pandemic, we have all fundamentally altered our personal and professional habits. We all wash our hands more frequently. Many of us have switched from a morning commute to the office to a work from home scenario. In short, our daily lives look considerably different than they did 18 months ago. Some of those changes will prove to be temporary, of course, but it seems increasingly certain that at least some of the “new normal” is going to stay with us long after vaccines are widely available. This is especially true for the professional habits taken up by janitors and facilities maintenance personnel, who essentially have the health of entire office complexes in their hands. Nowhere is this more evident than in touchpoint sanitation procedures.

Touchpoint sanitation is exactly what the name implies—ridding frequently touched surfaces of as many germs as possible with appropriate cleaning products. Doorknobs / handles, telephones that are used by multiple people, knobs and levers in restrooms, and copy machine control panels are just some of the touchpoints common in most office and retail environments. These can be vectors for a host of viruses and bacteria, not just Sars-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 illness it causes. Individuals don’t even need to be infected to leave microbes on these surfaces—in fact, a person can transfer microbes from one touchpoint to another without getting ill. That’s why touchpoint sanitation and frequent handwashing are an important combination.

Before the pandemic, cleaning professionals generally performed touchpoint sanitation once or twice per day. This would generally happen when spaces were closed or in their least-busy hours of the day, usually at night. Yet if the spread of COVID-19 has taught us anything, it’s that more frequent and more thorough sanitation measures are needed. In schools and office environments where cleaning professionals can readily work during the day, a midday sanitation routine can go a long way to preventing illness. In environments where thorough midday cleanings can’t reasonably be performed, consider discussing policy options with management (this could include discontinuing the use of community phones and/or computer peripherals, asking workers to use disinfecting wipes on certain touchpoints after use, etc.) that are designed to minimize transmission via touchpoints.

These measures are important not just to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but other common illnesses that tend to infect communities or groups like pink eye, influenza, and even the common cold. Many cleaning professionals were growing more aware of the health benefits of their work before 2020 hit our nation like a freight train; now, we’re all aware of the benefits of thorough cleaning. That’s why the practice is so likely to outlive the pandemic. It’s too beneficial to give up because it could be what stops another pandemic in the future.

Gergely’s Maintenance King has decades of experience and a reputation for reliability. We stock a wide range of janitorial and disinfecting products and our knowledgeable customer service representatives are available to help you make the right choice for your business.

View All Entries
  About