Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
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This Leader has turned out to be quite an accomplishment for me. Often I struggle over what to write; this time I’m struggling to stay upright long enough to be able to complete my 400-ish words! Yes – I have Covid. Writing about cleaning as I do, one might think that keeping myself safe is second nature to me. I wonder whether feeling so close to the sharp end because of Cleanzine has made me complacent?
My festivals have become a way of life for me over the past decade or so; I feel a bit like a child being let out of school – something a package holiday never did unless it was for skiing. I love the great outdoors and I’ve learnt to cope with living at a very basic level. I’m a natural at not having running water or lighting in the bathrooms and I’m proud to say I’ve never suffered from upset stomach or other ills because of poor hygiene. So what happened? And how have I managed to keep myself and my family safe for more than 18 months, yet succumbed to the virus as soon as I felt things were ‘back to normal’ again, despite being out in the open rather than in an enclosed environment? I’ve been wracking my brains and the only answer I’ve come up with is complacency. I’ve got into such a routine that it’s become second nature and as soon as the routine changed, all my ‘training’ was forgotten. I accepted a wristband. Did I sanitise afterwards? No. The compost loos didn’t have hand sanitiser (awaiting delivery). Did it phase me, since I carry my own? It should have set off alarm bells but I didn’t give it a second thought. I used the main shower/toilet block. Did I take extra care because of Covid? No.
We rely on the cleaners to keep shared spaces safe, but what if the establishment/s we’re in, don’t take Covid – or cleaning – seriously enough? And what if the cleaning team’s made up of volunteers with very basic training, if any? I didn’t give this a second thought but I should have stepped in. Is doing things automatically a safe way of living, or should we be thinking, constantly, about every move we make?
Anyway, sorry for the delay in this week’s issue, which I’ve completed with a huge sigh of relief. Please stay safe and don’t be like me, thinking you’ve got it all covered, when in reality you might not have it covered at all…
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Yours,
2nd September 2021