Intervention Recommendation and Clean-up Guidance
Following is a list of interventions and recommendations to address the outbreak on the SJU/CSB campuses. Several of these can be implemented immediately; others may require more time for planning and execution.
Please note: Interventions should be implemented on both campuses.
GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS – HIGH PRIORITY
- Campus-wide handwashing campaign: signs, posters, The Record, email messages, alcohol-based hand sanitizers for non-food service venues, etc.
- Foodworker follow-up and re-education, including assessing employee illness logs, whether foodworkers have been ill, and if/when they worked while ill.
- Develop and implement a plan for responding to public vomiting incidents, including training and education regarding personal protection measures responders so they can protect themselves from becoming ill.
FOODSERVICE:
- Exclude ill foodworkers:
- Foodworkers with symptoms of vomiting and/or diarrhea should not work while ill.
- Foodworkers who have been ill with vomiting and/or diarrhea should not return to work for 72 hours after their symptoms resolve.
- Reconsider the policy that foodworkers must have a doctor’s note when calling in sick (or consider suspending this policy during outbreaks).
- Handwashing education for foodworkers (when to wash, how often to wash, the proper way to wash).
- Remove self-service food items (salad bars, ice cream waffles, beverages, desserts, nuts/pretzels in common bowl in the bar, etc).
- In the event that self-services such cannot be removed, develop and implement a strategy for replacing self-service utensils every 20-30 minutes.
- Develop and implement a strategy for sanitizing self-service venues, such as beverage dispensers, during food service hours (e.g. soda and milk dispensers).
- Limit bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food items.
- Use gloves or utensils for handling ready-to-eat food items.
- If gloves are used, ensure proper training sessions on the proper use of gloves, glove replacement, and handwashing.
- Consider installing hand sanitizers at the entrance to food outlets or where installing handsinks is not feasible.
- Post appropriate signage to remind and instruct people to wash their hands or use hand sanitizers.
- Public areas should be sanitized with a chemical known to be effective against norovirus. Special attention should be paid to high-hand contact surfaces such as chair arms and backs, salt and pepper shakers, railings.
HOUSEKEEPING:
- Cleaning and sanitizing shared bathrooms
- Use a chemical known to be effective against norovirus.
- Bathrooms should be cleaned and sanitized frequently throughout the day.
- Public areas in dorms and other buildings, classrooms, and computer labs should be cleaned and sanitized frequently, paying special attention to high-hand contact surfaces (sports equipment, door handles/knobs, computer keyboards, telephones, elevator buttons).
- Consider suspension of vacuuming until the outbreak is over (especially in public areas where there has been a public vomiting incident).
- Student laundry facilities
- Machines should be disinfected daily (including running sanitizer through a full wash cycle and disinfection of the knobs/buttons or other hand-contact surfaces).
BUSES:
- Develop and implement a strategy for cleaning and sanitizing buses after a public vomiting incident.
- Use a chemical known to be effective against norovirus.
- Provide training and education for the cleaners so they can protect themselves from becoming ill.
- If there has been a public vomiting incident on a bus, consider removing it from service until it can be appropriately cleaned and sanitized.