Infection risk on surfaces and Coronavirus
The aged care sector understandably has concerns about the risk of Coronavirus (2019 –nCo.V), via contaminated surfaces. Current data contends that this Coronavirus can survive on a contaminated surface, but probably not for too long.
The articles I have read on this subject have primarily been generated by organizations that supply cleaning chemicals to aged care and hospital facilities. Their conclusions include:
- Using a compatible hospital grade disinfectant and wipe should be sufficient to ensure a clean and disinfected surface;
- That appropriate hand hygiene with an alcohol-based hand rub should be used after touching any potentially contaminated surface.
They conclude that if your cleaners follow these guidelines that the surfaces at your site will be clean and safe.
The problem with this thinking is that it assumes that cleaners have sufficient time to thoroughly disinfect surfaces in every room they clean every day. Any one working in aged care knows that cleaning in the average room is strictly time-limited (per day) and that a thorough spring clean is usually done (per room) monthly. Then there is the extra burden of exit/terminal cleaning as well as cleaning infected rooms.
Gen2 Services has been conducting trials over the past 18 months with new approaches to ‘complete’ room disinfection. Whilst we still adhere to strict hand hygiene practices and using the right disinfectant for the right job, we have added a new ‘dry’ hydrogen peroxide decontamination system to our disinfection methodology.
To find out more about this system, please do not hesitate to email: james.starr@gen2services.com.au
