Back To The Basics Of Hygiene

Back to the Basics of Hygiene

15 March 2021

5min read time

Guide

It’s time to take stock of your hygiene practices!

Following this latest blip in the COVID-19 journey for New Zealand, it’s the right time to remind ourselves that we should be taking action and ensuring continuous hygiene practices at home or at work are up to scratch. During this time, no matter where you are in New Zealand, basic hygiene has never been more important.

Basic hygiene measures include, good hand hygiene, cough and sneeze etiquette, avoiding touching your face, and ensuring surfaces are hygienically cleaned throughly and regularly.

Here are some of our top tips for staying safe:

Wash your hands with soap and water often (for at least 20 seconds) and dry thoroughly. Use an alcohol-based sanitiser and rub hands together if soap and water is unavailable.
Cough or sneeze into your elbow or cover your mouth and nose with tissues. Put them in a bin immediately.
Avoid touching your face, including your eyes, nose or mouth if your hands are not clean. Surfaces may have infectious droplets.
Clean surfaces regularly. This includes items frequently touch like door handles and phones.
Mask up. Wearing a face mask can reduce the risk of people who have COVID-19, spreading the virus to others. Some people with the virus feel well or have no obvious symptoms. A face mask can help stop infectious droplets spreading when they speak, laugh, cough or sneeze. This is referred to as ‘source control’.

Simple hygiene practices in the workplace is essential for both employees and visitors

1. Initiate a thorough workplace clean

Either through your cleaning agency or your own team, complete a thorough sanitisation of your workplaces prior to everyone returning for an initial clean throughout the entire workplace, try our virucide cleaner and disinfectant

2. Introduce cleaning practices

Create a set of initial cleaning practices for all staff. Using internal communications, remind employees to "clean when you arrive" and to "clean as you go". This could include hand sanitiser at the workplace entrances, wiping down workstations or cleaning your hands with sanitiser before and after breaks. And remember - not all hand sanitisers are created equal!

3. Work with HR or Internal Health & safety

Work with your HR team or Health & Safety team member to create hygiene protocols. These should be more rigorous and standardised than the cleaning practices in step 1. For all of these hygiene practices, make sure they are easy to implement and are for staff to understand

4. Provide high quality wipes, soaps, & sanitisers

Provide employees with cleaning wipes, surface & hand sanitisers and the most effective hygiene solutions that fit your working environment. We have some great options for cleaning products suited to any workplace such as Kemsol One Step Cleaner & Disinfectant Virucide, Clinell Universal Wipes, and Kemsol Liquid Soap Veltone. Make sure these are all easily accessible and include clear how to use instructions

5. Make Sure you have plenty of masks for you, your family and your staff

Masks are one of the most important items needed to limit and minimise the spread of infection. Even if you or any of your family feel fine, you may still carry the virus. We have plenty of masks in bulk or smaller numbers.

If you are concerned about the health and safety of your work environment in these uncertain times, give our friendly and knowledgeable team a call - 0800 277 678

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