The cleaning industry ramps up to fight #Covid-19 at Pietersburg Provincial Hospital

The company will be deep cleaning and decontaminating all high-risk and public gathering spaces at the hospital, including contributions of product, PPE and in-kind services to the Limpopo Department of Health. In addition, Servest will further impart skills and knowledge in quality control, Occupational Health and Safety to Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) to hospital cleaning workers.

The spread of the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted lives, communities and businesses across the country and the world.

“We want to play our part towards supporting government during this difficult time and working to support the Limpopo Department of Health in using innovative ways to minimise the burden already imposed by this pandemic on public health facilities,” says Xolile Sizani, group chief executive officer at Servest.

The initiative attempts to minimise healthcare staff infection exposure to Covid-19 by decontaminating the hospital and provide PPEs to healthcare staff including frontline staff. Over the past decade, there has been a growing appreciation that environmental contamination of hospital surfaces promotes infection transmission for many pathogens and this forms part of efforts to address this challenge.

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While the level of surface contamination with Covid-19 is not known, it is recommended that disinfection leads to decreased transmission. It is understood that coronaviruses can survive on surfaces for many hours but are readily inactivated by cleaning and disinfection.

Part of Servest’s efforts are aimed at training hospital staff and these efforts will support in enhancing and improving hygiene and infection control training for health workers until a permanent solution is found to address Covid-19.

Currently, South Africa’s number of cases has increased to over 2,506, and the country has recorded 34 death related to the virus.

“We are of the view that combining cleaning with other public health initiatives, such as social distancing, will act in concert, hopefully, in reducing the transmission of the coronavirus,” says Sizani.

Servest has acknowledged their responsibility to help fight this pandemic – including teaching healthcare workers as well as ordinary citizens how to wash their hands effectively. It’s a strong response, set to inspire other companies to play their part and make a difference in whatever manner possible.

"It is quite pleasing to see corporate joining hands with the government in the fight against this pandemic. It really shows that if we stand and work together as South Africans we can win this battle. Deep cleaning and observing hygiene protocols remains our priority in the fight against Covid-19,“ said MEC Ramathuba, Limpopo Department of Health.