How to Handle Cold and Flu Season
Cold and flu season is here, which means it’s time to up the ante on cold and flu prevention in your facility. When it comes to colds and flu, preventing an outbreak is better than trying to manage one, which is why we’ve put together some helpful resources to keeping your facility healthy and productive this season.
Unfortunately, you can’t stop germs and bacteria from entering your facility, but you can drastically reduce the likelihood of them spreading by ramping up cleaning and disinfecting in your facility.
A Look at the Facts
Did you know that 67 per cent of workers have admitted to coming in to work when they’re sick? It doesn’t take a lot for cold and flu viruses to spread through an area. In fact, within two to four hours, 40 to 60 per cent of an office can become contaminated with infectious viruses. This can include coffee pots, copy machine buttons and door and fridge handles.
Up to 10 million bacteria can be found on desk surfaces at any given time – that’s more than the average toilet seat! Keyboards have up to 3,295 germs per square inch and cell phones have 18 times more bacteria than public restrooms.
Stop the Spread of Germs
There are two main strategies to follow that can help prevent colds and flu from taking over a facility. The first is encouraging proper handwashing. Check out our Hand Washing How-To guide for the best way to wash your hands.
Since you can’t guarantee that everyone will wash their hands properly, the next best thing you can do to promote a healthy facility is increase the frequency of cleaning and disinfecting in your facility. Use effective products to routinely clean and disinfect surfaces, and be sure to focus on high touch areas. You can also encourage on-the-spot cleaning by non-custodial workers by making sanitizing wipes readily available in your facility.
Check out this cold and flu prevention fact sheet for more ways to keep your facility healthy this season.