A top priority for any facility is ensuring the health and safety of employees, occupants and customers. But what happens when an invisible threat like norovirus strikes, potentially disrupting operations and tarnishing your reputation?
Norovirus, often dubbed the stomach flu, is a highly contagious virus that can spread rapidly through workplaces, restaurants, schools and other environments, causing sudden outbreaks of vomiting and diarrhea. As you may have seen in recent news, norovirus infections are starting to spike. In fact, as of early January 2025, there were 91 confirmed or suspected outbreaks in just one week1, which is more than double the number typically seen at this time of year. A new strain may be to blame2 and as cases surge to levels not seen in over a decade3, concerns are ramping up.
How Does Norovirus Spread?
Norovirus spreads easily and quickly, especially in close quarters like schools, long term care facilities and cruise ships. The virus can be transmitted through:
- Contaminated Food and Water: Eating food or drinking liquids contaminated with norovirus.
- Person-to-Person Contact: Direct contact with an infected person, such as caring for someone who is sick or sharing food or utensils.
- Contaminated Surfaces: Touching surfaces or objects contaminated with the virus and then touching your mouth.
What Facilities are at Higher Risk?
Norovirus outbreaks can occur in many settings, but some facilities are particularly vulnerable due to the close contact and shared environments. These include:
- Healthcare Facilities: Long-term care facilities, hospitals, and nursing homes are the most commonly reported settings for norovirus outbreaks.4 The virus can be introduced by infected patients, staff, visitors, or contaminated food.
- Schools and Daycare Centers: Children are often in close contact with each other, making it easy for the virus to spread.
- Food Service: Food handlers who are infected can easily contaminate food, leading to outbreaks among customers.
- Cruise Ships: The confined environment and shared facilities make cruise ships susceptible to norovirus outbreaks. Passengers and crew members can quickly spread the virus through contaminated food, water, and surfaces.
- Military Barracks and Camps: Close living quarters and shared facilities increase the risk of norovirus spreading.
- Correctional Facilities: Inmates and staff in prisons and jails are at higher risk due to the close quarters and shared spaces.
What Can be Done to Help Prevent Outbreaks?
Preventing norovirus outbreaks in these settings involves strict adherence to good hygiene practices, regular cleaning and disinfection, proper food handling practices and prompt isolation of infected individuals. Here are a few suggestions:
- Wash Hands Frequently: Be sure to wash hands with soap and water, especially after using the bathroom, handling diapers or other potentially contaminated items, and before eating or preparing food.
- Focus on Surface Hygiene: Clean and disinfect surfaces that may be contaminated with norovirus.Here are a few tips to make sure your surface hygiene is effective:
- Identify high-touch surfaces and ensure they're in the cleaning plan. Make a list of surfaces that are very high touch – or get heavily soiled – and require cleaning and sanitization/disinfection multiple times per day versus those that can be cleaned and sanitized/disinfected daily or even weekly. With all the tasks that need doing every day, this takes the guesswork out – making knowing what to clean and when easy.
- Clean surfaces first. In order for the surface disinfectant to work, the surface must be free of any dirt, crumbs, or other debris (including vomit) that may make it harder for the disinfectant to kill germs. To save time and money, look for products that offer 1-step cleaning and sanitization or disinfection.
- Use an EPA-approved disinfectant with short contact times. Norovirus can survive on surfaces for weeks,5 making it necessary to disinfect surfaces properly and frequently. Choose an EPA-listed sanitizer or disinfectant proven to kill norovirus for confidence and consult the product label to ensure it’s being used correctly. Another tip - a product with a kill time of a minute or less will help increase staff compliance with enhanced disinfection protocols and, in turn, help reduce the risk of an outbreak within your facility. Plus, it saves your staff valuable time.
- Handle Food Safely: Wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly, cook seafood thoroughly, and avoid preparing food for others if sick.
- Stay Home When Sick: If you are experiencing symptoms, stay home to avoid spreading the virus.
Worry-free and effective solutions are available:
- PURELL® Surface Sanitizers, Disinfectants, and Wipesare EPA-registered, safe for most hard surfaces (spray is also safe on soft surfaces), and quickly kill 99.9% of viruses and bacteria, including norovirus (spray kills in 30 seconds), the flu virus (spray kills in 30 seconds), and human coronavirus (spray kills COVID-19 in 10seconds). They earned the EPA's lowest allowable toxicity rating (Category IV), so they don't contain harsh chemicals or fumes and don't require gloves, handwashing, or rinsing after use – even on food-contact surfaces. PURELL® surface sprays are certified for the EPA's Design for the Environment (DfE) as part of the EPA's Safer Choice program.
- PURELL® Body Fluid Spill Kits are single-use response kits that equip employees to respond to accidents and spills involving body fluids like vomit, blood, and diarrhea. Contains PURELL Foodservice Surface Sanitizer (8 fl oz); OSHAKits.com Absorbent Blend with Deodorizer; heavy-duty handheld scraper and dustpan; head-to-toe personal protection kit (hairnet, gown with thumb loops, gloves, shoe covers, eye shield and mask); three medical-grade absorbent towels; two large black trash bags with ties; and bilingual instruction guide with step-by-step images.
PURELL® surface sanitizers and disinfectants are U.S. EPA-registered and approved to kill norovirus on hard surfaces. Our goal is to provide products that are the best in the market, and towards that goal we conducted additional efficacy studies outside of the U.S. EPA requirements which demonstrated the efficacy of PURELL® surface spray products against human norovirus when used in realistic situations in accordance with label directions.
References:
- https://www.newsweek.com/map-norovirus-cases-surging-states-2007490; Accessed 01/10/2025.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Norovirus CaliciNet Data.
- https://www.cdc.gov/norovirus/php/reporting/calicinet-data.html. Accessed 01/10/2025
- https://www.today.com/health/disease/norovirus-2025-rcna185976. Accessed 01/10/2025
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/norovirus/outbreak-basics/index.html. Accessed 01/10/2025.
- Kramer A, Schwebke I, Kampf G. How long do nosocomial pathogens persist on inanimate surfaces? A systematic review. BMC Infect Dis. 2006 Aug 16;6:130.