To Disinfect or Not Disinfect? That Is The Question…

March 15, 2020

Being in the cleaning industry for 35 years, I have seen a great number of illnesses come and go.  The truth is, you should always be disinfecting your place of business.  The past 6-8 weeks of constant “news” about the COVID-19 virus have caused a great deal of concern for people, and much of the fear that is being created could have been avoided.

Let’s turn the clock back to 2009-2010, the last time that we had a pandemic.  We didn’t experience extreme panic about the swine flu. (a.k.a. the H1N1 flu) There was a concern, but nothing like what we are seeing regarding the current outbreak.  There were 60 million Americans that were infected with the swine flu, and only about 300,000 needed to be hospitalized. About 12,000 people died in the United States.  While that may seem like a lot of people, please realize that in the 2017-18 flu season, it is reported that as many as 61,000 people died from the flu and 45 million were infected.

COVID-19 Today

The current COVID-19 virus is a new virus that we need to deal with, yet many people don’t realize that Coronavirus was first identified and talked about in great detail in the mid-1960s.

The most recent Coronavirus’ have been MERS-CoV, Sars-CoV, and now Sars-CoV-2, which is identified as COVID-19.  Much of the information being provided by the news is causing unrest and panic among people, but the truth is that when your office is being cleaned properly and regularly, you really don’t have much to worry about at work.  Just as in any cold and flu season, the most important thing you and your staff can do is wash your hands, and stay home if you feel sick.

Most professional cleaning companies are utilizing high-grade disinfectants in their day-to-day cleaning.   They have a well-trained staff that understands the importance of cleaning and disinfecting high touch surfaces.  If you only have service 1-2 days per week, your staff needs to clean and disinfect on the days that your cleaning company is not cleaning your building.

Cleaning Should be Performed for 2 Reasons: Appearance and Health.

While many companies out there give the appearance of clean, they are not performing the deep clean as frequently as they should to truly clean for health.  A surface that is cleaned only for appearance may still have germs and bacteria on it, while a surface that is only disinfected may be free from germs and bacteria but still look dirty!

There is one good thing that has come out of all of this; it has started a conversation about proper cleaning and disinfection.  As a seasoned professional in the cleaning industry, it has concerned me for a long time that people aren’t as concerned about cleaning for health as they are about the appearance of clean.  Perhaps next year, people will realize that proper disinfection will lead to less lost productivity in the office.

– Tim Conn,

President and Founder of Image One Cleaning Facility Solutions