Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a wide range of businesses worldwide have been forced to close temporarily to reduce the spread of the virus. This has led to considerable changes within the business sector.
Although Malaysia is still battling this pandemic, the regulations start to ease, and businesses are gradually opening.
If you are one of many businesses planning to reopen, it is required to take the right safety measures such as booking a professional disinfection service.
While using personal protective equipment like disposable gloves or face masks can help, it’s not enough to avoid the spread of disease.
You need to take a further step by disinfecting surfaces as potentially infectious viruses survive on surfaces. So in this post, I will outline essential things on disinfection to ensure your employees’ and customers’ safety when you reopen.
Before going any further, take heed of these crucial steps for you to reopen your business safely.
Table of Contents
Disinfect Your Business Premises
Safety during the COVID 19 pandemic is all about being careful and planning ahead. Therefore disinfecting is one of the core parts you should not miss before reopening.
You can book a disinfection service for your business. Products that have vetted are very effective, and studies show that 99.9% of bacteria and germs don’t stand a chance on both hard and soft surfaces applied with vetted disinfectants.
Mandatory Cleaning Procedure
As soon as you reopen, maintain the cleaning procedure in accordance with the government guideline. This comprises disinfection of all common surfaces at intervals specific to your business and also follow some hygiene protocols like providing handwashing capabilities.
Continue to Maintain Hygiene Standards
Business owners are called to ensure that the business has all essential equipment for protecting everyone entering the premises. Therefore, your plans should not only focus on short-term protection, but you should build lasting hygiene solutions for your employees to continue to feel safe even in future health crises.
Methods of Surface Hygiene
Before we dive into essential disinfecting solutions, let’s look at surface hygiene methods since surfaces are highly susceptible to contamination from dangerous pathogens.
Cleaning is the process whereby you’ll be removing dirt, dust, mess, marks, etc, on the surface or object. This is done by brushing, washing, or wiping. It doesn’t kill germs, but it eliminates the number of germs. Since coronavirus is multiplying rapidly, cleaning is not effective in fighting the viruses and bacteria from the surfaces. It can actually spread germs, especially when cleaning with water and cloth alone. Therefore the best approach is to clean and disinfect.
Disinfection involves killing germs with strong chemicals like disinfectants. But nowadays, people just refer to disinfectants as sanitizers, which is not correct. These two are different and are designed to be used in different situations. Even though some sanitizers are EPA-approved, they only have claims for bacteria. On the other hand, disinfectants have claims against bacteria as well as viruses. Therefore you need to disinfect instead of sanitizing.
Essential Disinfecting Solutions to Use
Hygienic handles
Door handles are the primary host of cross-contamination between users. Again, that’s the main area which is not avoidable in all business entrances. It was proven that COVID 19 could survive in door handles for about a week. Therefore you need to install hygienic door handles at your premises to reduce the risk and spread of the virus.
Floor mats
Floor mat surface solutions is one of the overlooked part. Most plans are focusing on the face and hands. But studies show that floors carry a lot of bacteria despite being cleaned. Therefore you need to invest in an entrance disinfectant mat for your business. By adding this disinfectant solution, you’ll be ensured that you’re protected from head to toe. Advanced floor mats are designed to be used on level surfaces, like on entrances. So they can reduce all outdoor contamination.
Spray and wipes
As mentioned, cleaning alone is not sufficient; you need to substitute with disinfectant sprays and wipes, which can destroy disease-carrying pathogens. Disinfectant sprays are not like general household cleaners that only remove stains. But there are more effective and approved to ensure the safety of your business.
Touch-free hygiene solutions
Washing your hands, it’s more imperative during this pandemic. Fortunately, touch-free hygiene solutions have made it safer and easier. No-touch solutions bring better hygiene to any business and reduce cross-contamination, especially in restrooms, which are challenging to keep clean. They can greatly improve your safety as they allow users to hand hygiene without touching anything.
To Wrap Up
Undoubtedly this pandemic is stressful to everyone in Malaysia. But if you disinfect your workplace, your employees will be able to concentrate on their duties knowing that they are safe. Even customers won’t just touch everywhere when premises are fully disinfection. In short, if you take disinfecting seriously as a business owner, you’ll benefit from both your employees’ and customers’ safety, and your business will survive.
