Restoring public confidence after the pandemic

We have been living restriction-free in the UK for a while now, with the lockdowns of the past two years becoming a distant memory. But, there is still a lot of work to be done to get public confidence, and our businesses, back to pre-pandemic prosperity. A challenging task, not helped by the cost-of-living crisis putting additional pressure on revenues.

Mandatory mask wearing and COVID restrictions may be a thing of the past, but it would be foolish to think we’re completely back to normal. Although social distancing rules have been largely off the agenda for some months now, a lot of people are still very anxious about mixing in public, particularly in small, enclosed spaces.

There certainly is substance to these concerns. COVID-19 hasn’t disappeared and other seasonal viruses, like norovirus and influenza, will soon be on the rise again as winter returns. From high-traffic touchpoints to shared communal environments, the risk of transmission remains, and many people are all too aware of this.

Lasting impacts

It’s not just public confidence that has taken a hit during the pandemic. Many of our key industries, such as retail and travel, have been severely impacted.

For example, shoppers in the UK are showing a reluctance to return to shopping centres and high streets, with footfall still significantly below pre-pandemic levels. In fact, footfall in retail centres is almost a quarter lower than it was in 2019. And after an initial increase around the Jubilee in June, several factors, including rail strikes and the cost-of-living crisis, have meant numbers are tumbling once again.

Public transport use too is yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, and it’s not just increased home working that is affecting passenger numbers. Many people are anxious about using busy public transport, due to transmission concerns.

Restoring public confidence

In these increasingly challenging times, businesses need to do everything they can to ensure public confidence is strong when it comes to hygiene. They need to have the very highest levels of protection in place, and they need to be shouting about it to their customers, so they know they are safe when using their services. But how do they choose the right solution in an oversaturated market?

Since the pandemic first hit the UK, the market has been flooded with a wealth of hygiene products that claim to kill over 99.99% of bacteria. Of course, in laboratory conditions, many of these products do. But what their marketing materials will not reveal is how they stack up outside of a controlled lab environment. 

In the real world, up against numerous variables, many of these efficacy percentages plummet. What businesses need is a product that provides continuous, effective long-term protection. Our unique products do exactly this.

Here at OXONOX we have developed two revolutionary products for the lift and escalator market to do exactly this. Our AirLift and AirStair continual sterilisation products boast the world’s first use of controlled plasma technology – widely acknowledged as the next step up in performance, safety and cost over UV light – and have a germicidal kill rate significantly higher than traditional methods.

AirLift

OXONOX AirLift significantly reduces the risk of infection transmission in lifts, providing round-the-clock protection against bacteria and viruses by diluting the cabin with ultra-cleansed air.

AirLift uses controlled plasma technology to fill the enclosed area with totally germ-free air at a rate of 92 cubic metres, or roughly 20-30 air changes, per hour. By dilution, the process reduces the microbiological load in the lift space, which could be potentially carrying pathogens, including viruses, by over 90% according to independent testing.

So, customers can once again use lifts safe in the knowledge that lifts are not only looking clean, but that OXONOX AirLift is continually pumping in germ-free air to dilute any potential microbiological threats as quickly as possible. The lift will smell fresher as well as many bacteria-based odours will be diluted and expelled in the process.

AirStair

Designed for escalators and moving walkways, AirStair sits underneath the escalator, automatically and permanently sterilising handrails with up to a 99.999% kill rate.

It works all day, every day by directing controlled plasma onto the handrail, killing germs instantly. The high-energy bioactive plasma particles permeate and penetrate surfaces for complete coverage, reaching places that disinfectants and UV light cannot.  Most importantly if a handrail was to be infected at a random time during the day, the infected area of the rail would be treated by AirStair in the very next revolution, reducing the risk of anyone catching an infection from a rail to a minimum.  This continual protection offers clear advantages over manual cleaning once or twice a day, which has little residual effect if a large enough microbiological load of infection is deposited on the handrail.

To find out how OXONOX can deliver a continuous sterilisation solution, click here.