TUPELO, Miss. (AP) - A few hours before Mugshots opened for lunch in downtown Tupelo, a crew of workers covered from head to toe in white Tyvek suits were wiping down every hard surface in the building.
There wasn’t a case of COVID-19 for them to disinfect the facility; rather, it was part of a regular program that Mugshots instituted to ensure its restaurants are as clean and germ-free as possible.
“It’s just another step we’re taking to ensure the safety of our employees and our guests,” said Katherine Jackson, the restaurant’s general manager.
For Brian Rigby, the franchise owner of ServPro in Tupelo, the cleaning process was nothing new. His franchise has been cleaning like this since 2001, and the coronavirus pandemic was just another in a line of viruses he’s had to tackle over the year.
And he said the public should not be alarmed when they see workers in Tyvek suits with their equipment at a home or business.
“You may see them there, but that doesn’t meant there’s been a coronavirus case,” he said. “All they’re doing is being proactive. It’s a defensive cleaning that goes along with all of their cleaning protocols.”
Several professional cleaning companies offer similar services, and the CDC has guidelines on its website for cleaning. They include:
- If surfaces are dirty, they should be cleaned using a detergent or soap and water prior to disinfection.
- For disinfection, most common EPA-registered household disinfectants should be effective. A list of products that are EPA-approved for use against the virus that causes COVID-19 is available at cdc.gov .
- For soft (porous) surfaces such as carpeted floor, rugs, and drapes, remove visible contamination if present and clean with appropriate cleaners indicated for use on these surfaces.
Rigby said when the pandemic began in late March and early April, business picked up significantly.
“Here recently, it’s kind of half and half – half are confirmed cases that we’re disinfecting after and the other half is being proactive,” he said.
No place is too big or too small, from single offices to government buildings to manufacturing plants.
How long it takes a crew to clean and disinfect a place obviously depends on the size of the facility and the amount of work involved. ServPro offers different levels of cleaning, depending on what the customer wants. Thus, pricing varies depending on the scope of the job. But Rigby said a starting point would be about $200.
Tackling COVID-19 isn’t really anything new for Rigby, who said the H1N1 outbreak in 2008-2009 was when he started utilizing some of the cleaning programs now being uses for the coronavirus.
“We have a lot of schools and commercial buildings that we treat on a monthly basis, and we disinfect a lot of schools when we have a major flu outbreak,” he said. “This is the type of stuff we’ve been doing for 19 years, and we just have a lot more work orders for disinfecting than typically we have. It has died down some, I think.”
Mugshots, like other businesses, is treated weekly with a hospital-grade disinfectant, Rigby said.
“We treat all touch-point areas – door knobs, tables, chairs, light switches, plumbing fixtures, as well as things in or around high touch-point areas like door frames,” he said.
ServPro doesn’t touch the kitchen – that’s handled by the Mugshots staff, but Rigby said each client can specify what they want cleaned.
“We’ll work together with them; they can look at the CDC guidelines, they can look at what we do, compare and then we go from there,” he said.
As for tips for those who might not be able to hire a cleaning company, Rigby said he’s aware not everyone can afford the service.
“It’s all about daily disinfecting,” he said. “Wiping down high-touch, high-traffic areas consistently. It’s not hard to get something these days. In the event you do have somebody get sick, you can cut out some problems by already having a proactive cleaning program.”
And Rigby has one final piece of advice and it concerns wearing masks.
“I think it’s also important that everybody understands wearing a mask is very helpful – everything helps. But take care of that mask; there’s needs to be more education of how to handle and wear a mask properly. I’ve worn masks since I’ve been in the business from cleaning up blood-born pathogens disinfecting, Category III jobs – I’ve worn them a lot. Whatever you do just keep your hands away from your face.”
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