It’s not a stretch to say that Coronavirus has changed nearly every aspect of our lives, including how and where we feel comfortable enough to go out. Restaurants, pubs, bars, and nightclubs may have in the past been our favourite forms of socialising and entertainment, but can now be seen as a health hazard by many, causing some customers to prefer to stay home. So how to reassure them that it’s safe to return to your establishment while keeping business going and staff safe?
All entertainment venues now face new legislation to keep the venue clean and safe, and the government has more than once revised the guidance on expectations and standards. It’s likely COVID will impact venue cleanliness requirements far into the future, so it’s worth getting aligned with expectations now. As a result, all venue managers must get up to date with the latest cleaning guidelines.
The primary way to spread COVID-19 is via contact with someone infected or in the incubation phase. Transfer methods can be as simple as being breathed on, or a carrier person speaking, coughing or sneezing near an uninfected person and releasing particles (droplets or aerosols). When these particles are breathed in, they can spread the virus. Another way the virus can be transferred is on surfaces and by touching belongings contaminated with COVID-19 from being coughed on, sneezed on, or connected with contaminated skin. To ensure customers and staff are safe, management must mitigate this possibility.
So How Can Transfer be Avoided?
There are regulations about checking patrons before they enter the venue, but that is for another discussion. This article focuses on regulatory requirements and keeping everything clean as step one. Cleanliness is a controllable variable within a venue that management, workers and patrons can work on and get involved with to prevent COVID spread. By law, a venue must enforce specific guidelines.
”Keeping public spaces clean is critical to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Grease Gone
Venue Cleaning
Keeping spaces and workplaces clean helps to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and cleaning surfaces regularly that may be easily contaminated is vital. Things to consider to help with this include different things for different areas in the venue with all of equal importance. Take a look at the list below to get you started and see which you are already doing and areas of improvement.
Entrance and Public Spaces
- Ventilation is critical throughout the venue, and a straightforward way to ensure this is by opening doors. Keeping doors wedged open where people walk in and out will help reduce touchpoints while increasing airflow, and that may help keep the space aired and limit spread. But be sure that no doors that are wedged open are fire doors or will not be hazardous in case of emergencies.
- Cleaning and sanitising objects and work surfaces that are touched regularly, including counters and tills and ensuring easy disposal are available for cleaning waste and products. This is equally important for employee and customer spaces and should include tables, card machines, chairs, trays, and menus with lamination between customer use. While it’s essential to use your usual cleaning products, there are additional sanitising requirements for all surfaces now, so be sure to sanitise everything after cleaning.
- Consider hand sanitiser or bars, spacing of customers and regular cleaning of surfaces.
- Ensure workers wash their hands following the handling of customer items and between tasks such as collecting used plates before serving another table.
Restaraunt Kitchens
- Keep food preparation areas even more clean than they already are. Cleaning measures are already high for kitchens; however, there are new disinfection and cleaning measures. For example, having collection bins for used towels and staff uniforms is now required, as is workers washing hands before handling plates or cutlery.
- The expectation of constant hand washing throughout a work shift is essential too, and all staff need to understand this. There should also be no touching of their face or exposed skin. If this happens, hands need to be washed in between.
- If they need to cough or sneeze, be sure it’s in a tissue that’s binned after or aimed into their elbow.
- Provide regular reminders and signs about routine cleaning and hygiene standards.
- Provide hand sanitiser throughout work areas and not just washrooms.
Customer Toilets
- Keeping washrooms and toilet areas clean is another vital piece of the puzzle. This requires constant attention to maintain, especially during busy periods.
- Public toilets, portable toilets and toilets inside premises should be kept open. However, they should be managed carefully to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19.
- Using signs detailing correct handwashing procedures.
- Ensure hand sanitiser is available on entry to toilets and is safe, practical and accessible for all patrons.
- Ensure handwashing facilities include running water, liquid soap, and disposable drying options like paper towels, roller towels, or hand dryers.
- Set explicit use and cleaning guidelines for toilets.
- Keep facilities well-ventilated with mechanical ventilation if necessary, but open windows and vents if possible.
- Take extra care with portable toilets and large toilet blocks.
- Use a cleaning schedule that is up to date and includes more waste bins and more frequent collections.
Goods Handling
- There are further considerations when moving stock or service items, including reducing contaminations from deliveries that come into the workplace and vehicles at the worksite.
- Create cleaning procedures for delivery items entering the venue and any shared equipment that people may touch. These should be cleaned after each use.
- Encourage hand washing with facilities readily available for workers handling goods.
- Provide hand sanitiser.
- Regularly clean shared vehicles.
Finally
With so many things to consider in your venue, it may seem overwhelming. However, by making sure everyone is invested in health and safety for themselves and patrons, the necessary guidelines and guidance to protect against COVID are easy to follow and implement. No doubt there will be areas for improvement in your venue, so if you are looking for a professional clean, choose J&I Grease Gone as your professional cleaner for an expert deep clean and peace of mind. Our team is experienced and ensures full compliance with guidelines, so reach out for more information on how we can help.
