Tag Archive for: pandemic planning

You Should Start Preparing for the Next Pandemic Now

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Throughout the pandemic, our news feeds were inundated with headlines and articles telling tales of cleaning workers were on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of whom were ill-equipped for the task.

Custodians were “nervous as hell,” said one headline. 

“No Bleach, Dirty Rags: How Some Janitors Are Asked to Keep You Virus-Free” told the story of cleaners who were required to provide their own personal protective equipment (PPE) and products. 

In “What About the Workers Cleaning Up Coronavirus?” a reporter wrote, “…some [cleaners] say they aren’t being provided with adequate training or personal protective equipment.”

Experts have indicated that another pandemic is not far away. Take the learnings from this past year and apply them to your pandemic plan. This helps ensure your team is trained and you have the proper tools and equipment should another pandemic occur.

The pandemic exposed what many of us in the cleaning industry already knew: That way too many people (and frankly, often first generation immigrants) are tasked with the job of cleaning and given little to no training to perform the job. 

We give many of these workers keys to our workplaces. Why can’t we give them keys to protecting both their own health and safety — and ours?

Little Training Can Lead to Big Problems

What we know: Fomites are not the primary source of transmission for SARS-COv-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Rather, according to the CDC, the virus primarily spreads through respiratory droplets and by airborne transmission. 

But we didn’t know this at the beginning of the pandemic, and that new knowledge doesn’t change the fact that many custodial operations were caught off guard. From cleaning product and PPE shortages to a fundamental lack of understanding around the differences between cleaning and disinfection, custodial teams weren’t prepared. 

But unfortunately, this pandemic won’t be the last. As a recent article in National Geographic starkly reported, “Scientists say it’s only a matter of time before another deadly virus jumps from animal to human and goes viral.”

We never like to say, “We told you so,” but… 

Pandemic planning has been a core focus for (OS1) teams for several years. Rather than reacting to a pandemic, our founder, John Walker, believed that all cleaning operations should be prepared to follow a series of steps should a pandemic outbreak occur. 

This plan was tested with the recent pandemic, and if you listened to any of the Cleaning Conversations episodes, you heard from many (OS1) teams who 1) Were prepared to keep indoor environments clean during the coronavirus pandemic and 2) Felt equipped to communicate and educate stakeholders on the actions they were taking to keep building occupants safe.

So, what should your plan include?*

In preparing for another pandemic event, what are some of the core things a custodial professional should consider?

  1. A list of surfaces throughout your building
  2. A list of products/quantities you should add to your inventory, including chemicals and PPE
  3. Specialized worker training on use of chemicals and personal protection
  4. Charts and training resources for new cleaning workers 
  5. Websites for federal and local health agencies to stay updated on the latest guidance and information related to the pandemic
  6. Ongoing training logs to ensure workers understand the plan and are ready to enact it in the event of a pandemic.

If you want to make sure your custodial team is prepared for the next pandemic, you need to start planning now. If they are willing to step up and protect our buildings, we owe it to them to make sure they are equipped with the right PPE and training to do so. 

* This list is intended to provide your organization with a starting point for your planning.

From the Frontlines: Los Angeles Habilitation House Talks (OS1) and Cleaning for COVID-19

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There’s no shortage of information and news available related to COVID-19 and steps individuals can take to reduce its spread through actions like hand washing, social distancing and wearing masks.

As businesses begin to reopen, we will be talking to the cleaning teams who have been on the frontlines throughout the early weeks of the pandemic. What challenges have they faced and how are they changing their approaches to accommodate both teams and their clients?

Our friends Nancy Albin and Guido Piccarolo from Los Angeles Habilitation House discuss how the (OS1) System prepared them for the current pandemic and the changing perception of the importance of cleaning in maintaining the health of people in a building.

Experts Warn That a Global Pandemic is Around the Corner, but are Cleaning Departments Ready?

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The cover of this week’s Time Magazine will likely to grab your attention.

In the article, “The World is Not Ready for the Next Pandemic,” journalist Bryan Walsh chronicles the latest pandemic percolating across China—a new strain of the bird flu called H7N9. While it “mostly” affects poultry, the virus has jumped to humans, resulting in pneumonia (88 percent) and the death (41 percent) of its approximately 1,500 victims.

Experts say that the virus can only be transmitted from poultry to humans at this point, but that’s likely to change. The potential for the virus to evolve and become transmittable between humans is so great that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ranks H7N9 as the flu strain with the greatest potential to cause a pandemic.

The author notes:

And while a mutant bug that moves from chickens in China to humans in cities around the world may seem like something out of a Hollywood script, the danger the world faces from H7N9–and countless other pathogens with the potential to cause enormous harm–isn’t science fiction. Rather, it’s the highly plausible nightmare scenario that should be keeping the President up at night.

Scary stuff. But it’s even scarier for custodial workers who will be on the front lines of the battle, should the virus evolve. While we can’t know exactly how, when or even if it will spread, there’s a good chance that if it’s not H7N9, another virus will come along that will threaten our health and security.

This isn’t the first time that custodial workers have been challenged with the important job of preventing the spread of infection outside of healthcare facilities. It happened in 2009 with the H1N1 (Swine Flu) outbreak, in 2014 with the Ebola outbreak—it happens each year during cold and flu season.

Because many viruses can live on hard surfaces for several hours, it can spread “like crazy” between unknowing building occupants. That’s why effective cleaning and disinfection is an essential step to keep high-touch fomites, such as door handles and light switches, free of these viruses. That’s why planning to systematically address cleaning operations in an emergency situation like a pandemic is essential.

If you’re even peripherally associated with the cleaning responsibilities in your business, now is the time to start asking questions about how cleaning will be handled during an outbreak or pandemic situation. Is the custodial staff in your facility equipped with the right tools and knowledge to clean during an outbreak situation?

To help custodial teams prepare, we’ve identified the essential components of an effective pandemic preparedness plan. Your pandemic preparedness plan should include:

  1. A Playbook. Custodial teams must have a clearly defined action plan for how to respond in an emergency situation. This playbook will offer different scenarios and action plans depending on the virus at hand. In addition to instructions, the playbook should also include emergency contact numbers for key individuals in the building, suppliers and staff.
  2. Ongoing training for custodial workers. Even before an outbreak occurs, cleaning workers need to have a clear understanding of their responsibilities in an emergency situation. Training should include the following:
    1.  A disinfectant overview: The curriculum should include a primer on the specific viruses the disinfectants are designed to kill and the amount of dwell time required for the virus to be effective. You can’t just spray a disinfectant on a surface and immediately wipe it clean—this will make it completely ineffective. Workers need to understand what to use and how to use it.
    2. Steps for protecting workers: When custodial workers know and understand the risks, they will be more likely to take precautionary measures. This includes donning specific personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks or gloves.
    3. Action plans: Custodial personnel should have a clear understanding of their responsibilities during an outbreak situation. Using a systematic approach to cleaning is an essential step in making sure that surfaces are thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.
  3. Plans for inventory supply shortages. Supply shortages of commonly used items such as PPE, chemicals, tissues and hand sanitizer are likely to occur during an outbreak situation, so make plans for how to address shortages or stockpile items accordingly.
  4. Signage. Effective handwashing is key to eliminating potential pathogen encounters. Place signage around the building to remind building occupants to regularly wash their hands to reduce the opportunity for the virus to spread. Signage can also be used to remind custodial workers of their responsibilities, or  encourage building occupants to assist with cleaning efforts in their personal workspace.

Custodial workers play a key role in protecting the health and safety of building occupants on a daily basis, but even more so in an outbreak situation. Preparing them with the knowledge and tools they need will go a long way in stopping the spread of an infection.