With COVID-19 vaccines available across the country and masks mandates lifting, it may feel like it’s time to relax. However, if the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that businesses and public-facing organizations need to be prepared at all times for outbreaks of contagious disease.
Our public and private institutions were unprepared for COVID-19, but now they have the opportunity to take effective measures to be ready in the years ahead. This is important because most scientists agree that it is not a matter of whether another pandemic will occur, but a matter of when and what level of danger it will pose.
By leveraging lessons learned from this pandemic, healthcare organizations can take steps to protect their employees and infrastructure for whatever may come next. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recommends a multi-layered prevention strategy: promoting healthy behavior, maintaining clean facilities, and improving ventilation and air quality.
Maintaining healthy facilities, however, poses significant challenges: How do organizations clean often enough, and thoroughly enough, with traditional methods of cleaning crews using harsh chemicals that themselves pose health problems with excessive exposure? How do organizations improve costly and complex HVAC systems to improve air quality?
Ultraviolet light (UV) has been proven for more than a century to kill germs, bacteria, mold, and viruses. UV disinfection technology, such as that provided by Violet Defense, is an effective solution that reduces recurring costs of labor and cleaning supplies. Modern UV disinfection, properly installed and utilizing multiple bands of ultraviolet light, effectively kills 99 percent or more of prevalent and hazardous organisms, like coronavirus, E. coli, salmonella, and MRSA. Organizations from professional and college sports teams to school districts to conference facilities have adopted UV disinfection as part of their prevention strategy.
As we’ve learned, COVID-19 wasn’t unstoppable; the world simply wasn’t ready. Organizations now know what steps they should take to minimize risk, protect employees and customers and ensure the continuation of operations. UV technology provides a long-term solution to support infrastructure and prepare for future outbreaks.
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The author, Terrence Berland, is CEO at Violet Defense.
