Why regular cleaning is essential to prevent norovirus in schools

Norovirus, also known as the winter vomiting bug, is nothing like your common cold. When schools are struck by this nasty virus, it can escalate all the way to school closures, causing mass disruption for students, staff, and parents. Preventing norovirus in schools is not just down to parents and staff spotting symptoms, but also the cleanliness of the school's spaces.

With a professional cleaning service, school management can ensure that should the dreaded norovirus strike, their school is clean enough to stop the spread before it starts. In this article, we'll get into how norovirus outbreaks happen in schools, and what we as contract cleaners do to prevent them.

What is norovirus?

Norovirus is an incredibly contagious virus that causes severe stomach flu. As a vomiting bug, its symptoms are sudden and intense, including vomiting, diarrhoea, headaches, stomach cramps, and a fever, as well as other possible symptoms. While it's known as the winter vomiting bug, anyone can catch norovirus at any time of year, though it's more common in winter.

Norovirus is spread and caught very easily, through direct contact with infected people and contaminated food and drink, or by touching contaminated surfaces. If a student has norovirus and touches a book, pencil, or cafeteria table, anyone touching those things after will more than likely catch the virus themselves.

How long does norovirus last?

Fortunately for those suffering from the bug, norovirus symptoms typically only last for two or three days. However, this is more than enough time for the virus to spread rapidly. Plus, even once symptoms have ceased, the patient is still slightly contagious for another day or two. Staff and students with norovirus are often out of school for a full week to ensure the virus stops with them.

How does norovirus spread in a clean school?

A school can look and feel perfectly clean, but norovirus can still spread. Attempting to clean as normal during a norovirus outbreak is a little like trying to mop up the shoreline; those waves are going to keep rolling in anyway.

This is because the right equipment and products aren't being used to combat the virus. Did you know that vacuuming contaminated areas can blow the virus particles around? This spreads them onto surfaces that may not have even been touched by someone infected. If you're cleaning mid-outbreak and using mops or cloths that were used the day before, you may just be wiping the virus around. Even not washing your hands while cleaning is enough to spread the infection.

So, while all of these cleaning methods are acceptable when performing a standard cleaning, they simply don't hold up against more stubborn virus spreads. This is why you need a contract cleaning team or janitor on staff who understands the importance of preventative cleaning against norovirus.

How professional cleaning can prevent norovirus outbreaks

Teams of professional cleaners know the exact products, equipment, and techniques to use to ensure your school spaces are properly cleaned of the virus to prevent further spreading.

Once you have determined whether or not a norovirus outbreak may be occurring at your school, call us in. For schools in Suffolk, our outbreak-cleaning-certified team can be there in as little as 90 minutes, in full PPE. We use NHS-recommended products to kill the viral particles, including chlorine-based bleach British Standards 5197 or 6426, and 0.1% sodium hypochlorite disinfectant. We also keep detailed cleaning records, should you require them.

We rely only on damp cleaning methods and use disposable items to ensure we don't bring the virus back in on the next clean. If we provide you with your janitorial staff, they'll know to increase the frequency of their cleaning, ensuring spaces are thoroughly disinfected multiple times per day during the outbreak, especially shared spaces.

High-quality school cleaning services from Vivo Clean

Are you looking for a professional school cleaning service? Whether you need a contracted team to visit on a set schedule, a one-off deep cleaning service, or a janitor or janitors to be added to your staff, we can help. Our highly trained staff are able to tackle all school cleanings, from the day-to-day mess of learning to nasty outbreaks of norovirus in schools.

We understand the importance of student safety, which is why we perform DBS checks on all of our employees working with vulnerable groups. We are also happy to provide you with the COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health) information for each product we use, should you require it.

If you're interested in talking to us about arranging cleaning for your school in the Suffolk area, don't hesitate to get in touch with our friendly team today.