8 Moments for Targeted Hygiene: Guidance for Public Places and Workplaces July 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to develop new approaches to hygiene, founded in scientific understanding of modes of transmission and targeted at preventing the spread of infections in public spaces.

The challenge of implementing better hygiene standards includes both:

• Designing and equipping public spaces with appropriate hygiene infrastructure to facilitate good hygiene practices, including both hand and surface hygiene and minimizing risks from airborne transmission.
• Educating and informing occupants and the public about what effective hygiene is and how to practice it.

Effective hygiene is not a function of places or surfaces and nor should it be confused with “cleaning” to provide pleasant spaces. Hygiene is about preventing the spread of disease by breaking the chain of infection. Rather than places or surfaces, hygiene should be targeted to toward “moments of risk” - that occur when people move in and around public spaces, interacting with them.

This guideline aims to explain the origin and scientific basis of the 8 Moments for Targeted Hygiene, to provide a simple approach for owners and managers to identify the moments in your facilities and to put in place the right hygiene solutions consisting of both products and awareness raising tools.