The Janitors' Closet

A COVID-19 question

Given our decades old focus on cleaning for health, we've lately developed something of a focus on COVID and coronavirus decontamination - both in our ongoing commercial cleaning, and in providing quick response to both clients and the general public in event of a virus exposure in a given facility.  Thus, I try to keep abreast of developments of knowledge of the virus, and of its implications.  And I think a bit about it.

Here's something I've not seen addressed.

In Arizona, as in most jurisdictions, we approximate numbers of infected individuals, over time, by looking at the most recent percentages of infected in our daily "virus present" test results.  Now, those tests - the nasal swabs and so on - report whether the subject has "live" viruses currently in his system, and thus is currently "sick" and able to infect.  This has nothing to do with any antibodies he might have in his system.  If we see, as we have lately, a 15% infection rate, we conclude that 15% of the population has been infected and will shortly be immune (or dead).  We need something like a 60 or 70% percent immune rate for "herd immunity", so we've a long way to go.

But: If I tested negative today, there is no way of knowing (from that test) if I'd had the virus, perhaps with no symptoms, some time ago, and am, while now not sick, immune.  There are some unknown number of immune folks out there that we're not counting. 

For example, if we assume that an average infection lasts 30 days (likely over-generous), and we've been seeing similar positive results for 4 months (120 days), then, all else being equal, our immune rate, when the current crop recovers, is more like 60%.  And thus we're closer to herd immunity than we might think.

The only way to know is to test, randomly, for antibodies.  And we're not doing that.

 

Social costs of COVID-19

In between providing commercial janitorial, with an emphasis on pathogen, including COVID-19, control, and doing a good bit of specifically Coronavirus disinfection service, I'm noticing much less opportunity for any social and creative endeavor.

There is much social interaction that we've lost in this time of lockdowns.  The old 4th of July photo is of the Scottsdale Trombone Choir, which I've played in for 30-some years, and managed for a few.  I've also played for years in the Salt River Brass Band, and in an amateur concert band.  All the groups are on hold for the foreseeable future.  Our audiences - free admission  for two of the  groups and ticketed, generally through a season subscription, with Salt River, are no longer enjoying live music, and are doubtless getting a bit stir crazy, with few places to go.  Our musicians lack the comradery, and the challenge, of preparing and performing rigorous music for a discerning audience, and of honing, and enjoying, their skills. 

None of these losses, both to people and to society, figure prominently in economic stats, or in much of anything else.  But they are nonetheless real, and hurtful.

Further, it looks like the virus is not going away anytime soon.  Current thinking is that immunity after recovery is both fleeting and fragile, so the "herd immunity" we've been awaiting is unlikely.  And, since a vaccine depends on the same bodily reactions as does one's post recovery immunity, the benefit from a vaccine, should we get one, is similarly likely to be both fleeting and fragile.

This all might be the "new normal".  Should we give up much of what makes life worth living to, sometimes, avoid the disease?

 

The importance of fast response to COVID-19 decontamination requests

As you might expect, a business experiencing a COVID-19 coronavirus exposure most often needs to address the situation by disinfecting or decontaminating the facility at once (some refer to this as a "COVID deep clean"); one might send employees home today, but likely wants to open for business tomorrow.

We've trained and equipped three service techs, and three supervisory personnel (yours truly included) for COVID-19 decontamination jobs; we can generally respond same day, after office hours.  Disinfection is usually best done after hours because the client's staff, or customers, ought not inhale a large volume of the disinfectant; we setup our technicians with full protective gear, including goggles (not just safety glasses) and face mask, but we can't count on our client's folks being protected.  Our disinfectant requires a bit of dwell time (10 minutes wet), but won't be an issue for the client's employees next morning.

In passing, best practice on learning of a recent exposure in your facility would be to air the place out (tiny droplets containing the COVID virus can remain airborne for hours, and you want to dilute that air as much as possible) and spray or wipe down any possible contaminated surfaces with a good disinfectant, with a viral kill claim, observing the proper dwell time.

Here's a bit on our decontamination protocols, both how we're cleaning and disinfecting ongoing as part of our usual janitorial service (Level 1) and how we address an exposure incident (Level 3).