Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 25th April 2024 Issue no. 1111
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Interesting times ahead, I reckon, with much of the world easing back into 'normal' routine following the extended lockdown aimed at reducing Coronavirus infections. I know we all need to get back to work somehow but it strikes me that some governments don't seem to have thought through the best way of going about things. My Prime Minister announced late Sunday evening that we should return to work (if we couldn't work from home) the following morning, without, it appeared, any thought as to whether or not our workplaces were even open!
Risk assessments needed to be carried out and employee distancing measures put in place and while some companies will have had the foresight to carry out these tasks during lockdown, most will not have done so because none of us knew how things were going to pan out. These things need careful planning if we’re to get them right and reduce this ‘second wave’ that threatens; something which seems to have been lost on my Government. And what about the need to clean our workplaces thoroughly, before we return to them?
Parents responsible for home-schooling young children being will have had to arrange childcare at short notice and many won’t have managed. Companies employ people to do a particular job because they need them in that job; we’re like cogs in a wheel and if vital cogs are missing then nothing will run smoothly. What if you’re in manufacturing and don’t have all the parts you need to produce whatever it is you manufacture, or if all none of the packers have made it into work? I'm sure I'm not the only one who had a 'head in hands' moment when I heard the announcement.
My personal view that the youngest children should shortly start back at school, with social distancing measures in place and many school staff wearing masks, is akin to child abuse. It’s crazy too. Choosing to send mere babes to school where they're going to have to avoid all the sorts of things they normally do (hold hands, pick noses, suck thumbs, plait one another’s hair etc) is crazy. They're going to be traumatised and no doubt the staff will suffer too - and that's without even considering the threat of catching Coronavirus. These children may well be bringing in infection from home via parents who are back at work. Are there special cleaning measures in place to keep everyone safe, I wonder? Somehow, I think not…
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Yours,
14th May 2020