Diversifying in antiviral protections

WHILE many consider redundancies, a Queenstown cycling company has kept jobs through reactive diversification.

Bike hire and tours business Around the Basin has partnered with Aucklandbased Clear Facilities to provide a “fogging” service, whereby they spray — or “fog” — a venue with an antimicrobial, nontoxictohumans solution that kills germs on surfaces for up to 30 days.

Operations manager Hamish Fleming said it was a “good opportunity to keep staff employed and keep busy” at a time when there were no tourists.

“The way it works is, it bonds to surfaces and forms a barrier that stops mould, pathogens and viruses, such as Covid19, from settling, living and thriving on those surfaces.

“We feel it is going to be really useful in Queenstown and the tourism industry especially where there is a high volume of people.”

Around the Basin has already started to use the antigerm product on all their shared equipment, including bikes, helmets and straps.

Customers and staff were also asked to use a 24hour protection handwash version.

Mr Fleming said once a room had been fogged, all “touch points” were manually wiped down with the Clear Protect 30 product, including handles, light switches and IT equipment, to ensure protection.

Around the Basin planned having six members of staff working on the cleaning operation and aimed to fog various venues around the resort.

Before the move to Alert Level 2, Mr Fleming and Clear Facilities operations manager Adrian Naik worked together on Tuesday to fog and wipe down ProActive Physio on Junction Tce, Queenstown.

Senior physiotherapist Sonya Anderson said she intended to use the service regularly to “make sure there is no or very minimal chance of any virus” spreading in their treatment rooms.

“For us it is about safety for our clients, not just building confidence but making sure everything is safe and exceptionally clean.”

ProActive welcomed clients back into its building on Thursday, although treatments like massages would not restart due to the direct physical contact.

Ms Anderson said the physio would have an honesty box for locals to pay what they could afford if they had lost their job and needed treatment.

PHOTO: MATTHEW MCKEW New income streams . . . Clear Facilities operation manager Adrian Naik fogs the ProActive Physio treatment rooms to protect against Covid19.

PHOTO: MATTHEW MCKEW Opportunity from crisis . . . Around the Basin’s Hamish Fleming and Clear Facilities operations manager Adrian Naik at ProActive Physio ready to fog the rooms with an antigerm product to prevent spread of Covid19 through surfaces.