Covid Alert... REALLY!!

[Greynomad]

T1,
He wasn’t wearing it for the photo, but when he unavoidably has to go inside the hood, Daniel (and all other ICU nurses) have a portable gizmo with a belt-pack filter feeding a tight-fitting face mask. They also wear airtight goggles & face shields. (He had to lose his beard for his own safety. )
The nurses are trained in removing the gear without touching potentially contaminated surfaces. It takes about 10 minutes to suit up, and 20~25 minutes to remove correctly & safely.
I think he told me the filter unit has to be returned to the manufacturer in a sealed container for decontamination & refitting. They are not used casually.

[T1 Terry]

Those filters in a much bigger size should be fitted in all office, nursing home, hospital, restaurant, hotel and cruise ship air recirculation systems to filter out the pathogens from the air to reduce the spread of the virus by airborne vapour droplets.
It appears as though all private security guards used for hotel quarantine need to be squeezed through one of these filter as well

T1 Terry

[SteveW]

Here's a question that the experts haven't answered, and don't want to address. Why are those high speed germ spreading hand dryers in toilets not removed? Have a look in the bottom of them. Better still, don't look in the bottom, there is usually ugly gunk in there.

[jon_d]

Steve,

Not a problem in Melbourne. We're not allowed outside.

[supersparky]

Steve,

Not a problem in Melbourne. We're not allowed outside.

NOW.

But its already to late for Victoria, but maybe not the rest of the hotspots.

[Greynomad]

Steve,
Do you refer to the Blade brand ones which you dip your hands into, and air blasts from both sides?
The old style ones just have a down-facing nozzle. Nothing below them but the floor.
Must admit, I’ve never peeked inside one.
Don’t use them, and more often than not, I prefer to use a squirt from my pocket-sized bottle of sanitizer to the ones provided by stores.
The point most retailers seem to have missed is, how frequently do they clean the button on top that everyone else has touched?
Possibly someone infectious walked in just before you.... and used the button.
At least SOME retailers have touch-free dispensers.

[T1 Terry]

Here's a question that the experts haven't answered, and don't want to address. Why are those high speed germ spreading hand dryers in toilets not removed? Have a look in the bottom of them. Better still, don't look in the bottom, there is usually ugly gunk in there.

When I was doing the hospitality course, we had a visit from two of the Wollongong council health inspectors. When it came to question time, the first question was regarding the great debate between air dryers and the continuous towel cabinet and paper towels. They were in favour of the paper towels ... when asked about testing of surfaces close to the different hand drying stations and which was the cleanest, the air dryer won hands down, the continuous towel spread lint that could be contaminated, the paper towel had a similar issue and not everyone got the paper towel in the waste receptacle leaving contaminated waste towel on the floor. The questions drifted off to the great butcher chopping block debacle where butcher shops were forced to get rid of the wooden blocks and replace them with the nylon blocks, only to discover they were coming up with a lot of contamination problems and needed replacing after only a few mths, yet there had not been any proven health issues leading back to the wooden blocks. Then a member of our group who was an ex butcher by trade added in his bit, the wooden blocks were spoke shaved every week end but the nylon block could not be surface recovered .... red faces all round and an acceptance that the banning of the wooden block was a mistake and now the wooden block was back in favour with a list of servicing instructions that was basically the routine all butchers had used for yrs ......
Then the great debate about food held in bay maries having to fall in a set temperature range, yet they had never been a food poisoning link to the kebab knife cutting straight off the meat that sat rotating for hrs where only the surface was cooked and the remained not held below the required 5*C, how could that be? More mumbling etc
The end question was by our trainer who also owned the reception lounge where we were doing the training, it was fine to wash your hands and use the most hygienic hand drying method, but how do you open the door to leave without recontamination of your hands? A real issue for kitchen staff? Their answer, that was why they preferred paper towel, they could use that to hold the handle when opening the door to exit the toilets ..... what did you do with the paper towel, threw it back through the door before it closed ......

In my opinion, the most hygienic set up, the zig-zag path into the toilet area and those blade air dryers that pulled the air and moisture down into the dryer itself and disposed of it through a vent system ... but with an air born pathogen? Wear a mask at all times when in a public frequently used area?
As far as the store's public use sanitiser pump spreading the virus, even if you picked it up from the hand pump, the action of rubbing the sanitiser over your hands is designed to kill the pathogens so ......

T1 Terry

[BernieQ2]

Steve,
Do you refer to the Blade brand ones which you dip your hands into, and air blasts from both sides?
The old style ones just have a down-facing nozzle. Nothing below them but the floor.
Must admit, I’ve never peeked inside one.
Don’t use them, and more often than not, I prefer to use a squirt from my pocket-sized bottle of sanitizer to the ones provided by stores.
The point most retailers seem to have missed is, how frequently do they clean the button on top that everyone else has touched?
Possibly someone infectious walked in just before you.... and used the button.
At least SOME retailers have touch-free dispensers.

Possibly someone infectious walked in just before you.... and used the button.

All the ones up here now a non touch...no more touching the button. (That's for the sanitizers )
They changed just recently might be a 'gov" directive ?
Bernie .

[SteveW]

Steve,
Do you refer to the Blade brand ones which you dip your hands into, and air blasts from both sides?
The old style ones just have a down-facing nozzle. Nothing below them but the floor.
Must admit, I’ve never peeked inside one.
Don’t use them, and more often than not, I prefer to use a squirt from my pocket-sized bottle of sanitizer to the ones provided by stores.
The point most retailers seem to have missed is, how frequently do they clean the button on top that everyone else has touched?
Possibly someone infectious walked in just before you.... and used the button.
At least SOME retailers have touch-free dispensers.

I think the old style are more hygienic. Anything that never get your hands dry can't be too bad. But none of them should be used at the moment - if ever.