The effectiveness of a school-based protocol for environmental cleaning and disinfection during a pandemic: a randomized controlled pilot study

Abstract

Background: Since no specific environmental cleaning instructions and methods have been developed for schools to tackle pandemics, and cleaning methods, this study aims to investigate the feasibility of a new effective school cleaning protocol in reducing the environmental contamination in kindergarten and primary school settings.

Methods: This study implemented a cluster randomized controlled trial with three-arms, namely two intervention arms - groups A and B, and one control arm - group C. The first intervention arm included the cleaning staff who would participate in an educational workshop and be equipped with disposable wipes, while the second arm, group B, participated in the educational workshop only. The third arm, group C, received no treatments.

Results: 1080 sample points were collected from pre-determined sites in the study within the 6 schools. At the 2-week follow-up post-intervention assessment, all sites were found to be clean for group A that used disposable wipes, while group B, without disposable wipes, were found to have left more sites contaminated. Staphylococcus aureus was found in the sites cleaned by group C.

Conclusion: Based on the findings in this pilot study, a further study at a larger scale focusing on the education program with enhancement and use of the cleaning protocol can be conducted to train cleaning staff for effective environmental cleaning in a school setting.

Keywords: Cleaning method; Cleaning staff; Disposable wipes; Fluorescent mark; School health.

Fig. 1

Environmental swabs and fluorscent markers