Don’t lose the focus on cleanliness

21st of June 2022
Don’t lose the focus on cleanliness

A new wave of Covid cases in schools has led to increased focus on cleanliness in public spaces – writes Anna Garbagna in Italy.

The new increase of infections recorded in Italy during the month of March, as well as alarming the national health service in fear of a fourth wave of Covid, has once again brought to the fore the ongoing problem in terms of prevention of the spread of the virus: the sanitisation of public environments.

This aspect has proven to be really important in all the environments where many people are together, especially in view of the much hoped-for “new normality”. While this is really important in workplaces, in places of entertainment and in sport areas, it is undeniable it is also vital where there are groups of young people and so, more specifically, in schools.

The surge of infections due to Covid is showing how it is vital to always keep a high awareness in terms of safety, hygiene and sanitisation of environments. This can only be achieved by involving the professionals of the cleaning sector, a sector that in Italy is vital as well as a reflection of high quality.

For this reason, a delegation of ANIP Confindustria (the national association of cleaning companies and integrated services), led by the president Lorenzo Mattioli, had a meeting with the Ministry of Education through the head of department for planning of Miur, Jacopo Greco, on the topic of the sanitisation of schools.

“As an association of companies”, Mattioli explained, “we have highlighted the need to ensure professional sanitisation in Italian schools, to guarantee perfect performance to protect everybody’s health and safety. It is also good to emphasise this aspect, because the school environment is one of the most sensitive to the topic and we want staff, students and families to feel at ease from a health and hygiene point of view during the wind-down of anti-Covid measures.

"We thank Minister Bianchi for opening the meeting, we remain available to the school world to offer our support and our know-how to allow schools to operate face to face and in safety until the state of emergency ceases.”

Easing of measures

This cry of alarm, exactly on the eve of the end of the previously mentioned “state of emergency” and the slowing down of measures against the virus, is timely and important, also due to the fact that in the upcoming budget, the infrastructure investments toward this objective seem to have disappeared. “Over two billion square metres of public surfaces/areas need sanitisation”, continued the president of ANIP-Confindustria, “and there are no plans or incentives in view from the State.

"We believe that it is a mistake to believe that it is possible to do without sanitisation, as is happening in schools now where we witness no less, the ongoing employment of auxiliary staff that does not guarantee any safety in professional terms for the cleaning and the safety of school environments - as we have been reporting for a while. And in fact it is schools which are the places where the virus is mostly spreading.”

Cleaning professionals could render these environments safe.

 

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