Maintaining teachers and students' safety and wellness during the ongoing health emergency is a top priority for school administrators and janitorial service providers in educational facilities throughout the country.

Maintaining Classroom Cleanliness and Safety During COVID-19
Schools and classrooms are hotbeds for pathogens, which can spread rapidly, even with an introduction point of one or two contaminated individuals--a fact recently made painfully clear in a classroom hygiene experiment conducted by YouTuber Mark Rober.

Recently, speculation has begun to circulate regarding a correlation between increased cases of COVID-19 and colder temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere.

The Correlation Between Increased COVID-19 Cases and Cold Weather
Does cold weather impact the spread of influenza, norovirus, the common cold, and COVID-19?

Yes, but also no.

Hospital-acquired infections affect approximately one in every thirty-one U.S. healthcare patients--a statistic that may be profoundly affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Potential Impact of COVID-19 on Hospital-Acquired Infections
Prior to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, HAI's were a serious issue plaguing U.S. healthcare facilities, affecting one in every thirty-one patients, resulting in more than six hundred thousand hospitalizations and seventy thousand deaths in a single year.

Schools provide vital infrastructure services to surrounding communities and students--underscoring the importance of keeping them clean, safe, healthy, and open during the ongoing public health emergency.

Clean Schools Serve the Local Community
Schools provide critical services to their communities, including:

Student meals
Employment opportunities
Support programs, including meals, social services, and mental health support services
The equivalent of daycare services, allowing parents and guardians to go to work during the day

These services cannot be provided or effectively managed outside of a face-to-face learning environment, which means classrooms must be open, teachers and supporting faculty and staff must be in attendance, meals must be prepared, and facilities must be available.

Due to the social distancing requirements put in place to combat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, many "we" designed office spaces, which focused on open and shared spaces to encourage worker collaboration, will be upgraded or retrofitted in line with the "me," or individual workspace design.

As time progresses and more studies are conducted, our knowledge regarding the function and behavior of SARS-CoV-2, including its survivability rate outside of the human body on various fomites, continues to expand.

Coronavirus Survivability on Surfaces Underscores Importance of Regular Cleaning
Our knowledge regarding SARS-CoV-2, specifically survivability rates outside of the body and how it spreads, has evolved.

Winter is upon us, and travels for both work and pleasure are increasing, which means businesses will need to protect their customers and workers from the elements and potential slip and fall injuries.

Protecting Businesses and Occupants From Slip and Fall Injuries
Winter is nearly upon us, and with it will come low temperatures and increased moisture, ice, and snow, all of which can combine to wreak havoc on facility properties, especially flooring, and presents an increased risk for occupants and guests in the form of slip and fall accidents--accounting for more than 1 million hospital visits each year.

Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma have successfully returned to a fairly normal high school athletics schedule at the start of this year's school season, but must maintain the hygiene of their facilities and protect the students to ensure the activities remain available and the participants remain healthy.

Touchpoint cleaning and disinfection services are critical components of a clean and healthy learning and working environment, especially during cold and flu season.

Touchpoint Cleaning and Disinfection Services
Due to the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, touchpoint cleaning and disinfection services have become recognizable household terms.

The COVID-19 public health emergency has officially merged with the northern hemisphere's annual cold and flu season, resulting in heightened levels of stress due, in part, to similarities in symptoms between the various infections.

Similarities and Differences Between COVID-19, Influenza, and Common Cold Infections
The ongoing public health emergency has resulted in what health care professionals are referring to as a second pandemic--unofficially coined 'pandemic tension.