JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Nearly a dozen Jacksonville bars and restaurant are reporting that their employees and some of their patrons have tested positive for COVID-19, and they are now forced to close their doors and disinfect their facilities.
Steven Kaufman runs Urban Mining.
"We wipe everything down. I know there are companies that go out there and use foggers and kind of spray everything," Kaufman said. "We wipe it down."
Urban Mining is a Jacksonville technology company that also provides a disinfecting service called SanitizeIT.
"We developed it specifically for the coronavirus pandemic," Kaufman said.
His clients are primarily some of the larger employers, and his focus is office equipment.
"We sanitize it with an antiviral and then quarantine it before it is reintegrated back into the business environment," he said.
The quarantine period is usually 48 hours, long enough to be sure that the laptop or monitor is COVID-19 free.
"We do the equipment and we leave the sanitization of the workplace to someone else," Kaufman said.
The Centers for Disease and Prevention has established protocol for those disinfecting a facility.
It requires the use of an EPA-registered disinfectant and calls for the agent to focus on high-touch areas such as tables, doorknobs, light switches, phones and toilets, for example.
Does it work? Kaufman said he was not in a position to say yes or no. He said look at the number of places that are being disinfected now.
While the antiviral disinfecting agents are EPA-registered, Kaufman said there is still much uncertainty with the COVID-19 virus.
He said we have to use logic, good judgement and trust the cleaning protocols are being followed.
"It is the process outlined by the CDC and the process that they follow in a medical environment, but nothing yet has been proven against COVID-19, so it's really good logic and good judgment," Kaufman said.
His company, Urban Mining, has 25 employees, and he said the safety of his team as well as the safety of clients and their customers are his top priority.