Most are doing their best to avoid other people’s germs right now. But for cleaners and those who get rid of that trash, they’re coming into contact with COVID-19 every shift.
He can’t see it but JR LeBlanc knows he’s coming into contact with COVID-19 every shift.
When the pandemic began, LeBlanc was tasked with cleaning his hospital’s ICU and what he calls the “COVID rooms”, where people with confirmed cases stay. First, he tears the curtains down. Then he deep cleans the walls, beds, wires, the washroom and every counter top.
“It’s not easy for anybody to do this job,” said LeBlanc, a cleaner at Southlake Regional Health Centre, in Newmarket, Ont., north of Toronto. “I’m scared … but I also make sure that I wear what I’m supposed to wear and I focus on what I’m doing.”
LeBlanc is an essential part in the fleet of workers cleaning up COVID-19 germs, to help contain outbreaks and keep the virus from spreading to others.
He’s not worried about getting sick — he said the hospital is extremely clean and no visitors are allowed in. Doctors, nurses and cleaners are looking out for each other, making sure everyone is wearing the proper PPE, he said.
LeBlanc does worry about his two sons though. Both work in grocery stores, where he said many more people are coming and going.
“I’m in control of myself but I’m not in control of where they are,” he said. “I teach them … but you never know if someone [sick] could interact with them.”
‘Can’t just leave the waste sitting there’
LeBlanc carefully disposes of the trash — then it’s collected by people like Paul McKee. He picks up garbage around Hamilton and Niagara for GFL Environmental Waste, a private company.
His stops include hospitals and nursing homes where there have been outbreaks.
“We know that we’re coming across it,” he said of the virus. “You just can’t leave the waste sitting there because more people are going to get sick.”
McKee, vice-president for his local work union, said some