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Find printable materials on handwashing on the CDC website, including a fact sheet on hand
hygiene at work. CDC has additional materials including social media graphics, posters, stickers,
videos, and more.
Cleaning and Disinfecting
High touch surfaces should be cleaned regularly, and other surfaces should be cleaned when
visibly dirty. In addition to cleaning, disinfect areas of your facility where people have obviously
been ill (for example, vomiting on facility surfaces). If the space is a high traffic area, you may
choose to clean more frequently or disinfect in addition to cleaning. During certain disease
outbreaks, local health authorities might recommend specific disinfection procedures to reduce
the risk of spreading disease within the facility. Do not use misting, fogging, fumigation, or
wide-area spraying. These methods are not effective at reducing the spread of COVID-19, do
not clean germs off surfaces, and are harmful to human health. See Safe Cleaning and
Disinfection Guidance for Public Spaces for more guidance.
Always thoroughly clean with soap, water, and a microfiber cloth before applying the
disinfectant to the surface. Follow all instructions on the disinfectant label, including leaving the
disinfectant on the surface for the required wet contact time. Current CDC guidance for
cleaning and disinfecting for COVID-19 states that disinfectants should be registered by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes
COVID-19. You can find a list of registered disinfectants for COVID-19 (List N) on the EPA’s
website. Disinfectants based on hydrogen peroxide or alcohol are safer for use. See this fact
sheet from the University of Washington with options for safer cleaning and disinfecting
products that work well against SARS-CoV-2.
Screening Testing
Workplaces at high risk of COVID-19 transmission and severe outcomes may consider screening
testing to prevent workplace transmission through early identification and isolation of cases.
Screening testing is testing asymptomatic persons without recent known or suspected exposure
to COVID-19. A workplace may be at high risk of COVID-19 transmission and severe outcomes
due to facility characteristics (e.g., poor ventilation, isolation from health care resources,
congregate living), characteristics of workers and/or the populations they serve (e.g.,
underlying health conditions, poor access to medical care), or when COVID-19 hospital
admission level is high. Screening testing may be prioritized in the following settings:
• High-risk congregate settings, such as correctional facilities and homeless shelters, that
have demonstrated high potential for rapid and widespread virus transmission to people
at high risk for severe illness
• Settings that involve close quarters and are isolated from health care resources (e.g.,
temporary worker housing, fishing vessels, wildland firefighter camps, or offshore oil
platforms).
Repeat screening testing is less effective at reducing COVID-19’s impacts in settings where
disease rates are lower, risk of spread is lower, and risk of severe illness is lower.
Screening testing may include testing of all workers before entering a workplace, testing of
workers at regular intervals (e.g., weekly), targeted testing of new workers or those returning
from a prolonged absence, or a combination of these approaches. See the CDC’s testing