Some of the most essential workers right now are people who literally confront the coronavirus when they sanitize public spaces. Anago Cleaning Franchisee, Antonio Martinez, has been running his commercial cleaning business in Miami for 13 years. Antonio spoke with NPR about what it鈥檚 like on the frontlines of COVID-19 and the importance of keeping businesses clean.
NOEL KING, HOST:
Some of the most essential workers right now are people who literally confront the coronavirus when they sanitize public spaces. Antonio Martinez (ph) has a franchise with the cleaning company Anago. He鈥檚 been running his business in Miami for 13 years. He says he has a lot of clients.
ANTONIO MARTINEZ: Medical facilities, doctor office, regular office 鈥� I have a car dealer, a hotel, exterminators (laughter).
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
He normally visits sites during the day and trains his employees how to clean properly. His business is doing way more deep cleaning than ever before.
MARTINEZ: It鈥檚 crazy (laughter). Everybody wants their desk, their doors, the elevators, their handles, the refrigerator 鈥� everything that everybody touch on a daily basis, they want everything disinfected, which is not common.
KING: Because Martinez cleans medical facilities, he already had the masks and the gloves. But as COVID-19 spread, he went to hardware stores and bought full-body suits for extra protection. And he鈥檚 told his employees 鈥� if you鈥檙e not wearing PPE, don鈥檛 work. They get paid hourly, and now what they鈥檙e doing takes twice as long.
MARTINEZ: People think that disinfecting is just taking, like, a Lysol wipe and clean the surface. It doesn鈥檛 work like that. You need to spray the entire office. You wait between a minute to two minutes for the chemical to kill the germ, and then you wipe it down. That鈥檚 the way it鈥檚 supposed to be done.
GREENE: Antonio Martinez is 49 years old. He has two children. And his family is worried about him.
MARTINEZ: Especially my wife 鈥� don鈥檛 go; be careful. But I have to go. I鈥檓 like a captain of any ship, and I want my employees to see that I鈥檓 there for them, for our customers.
GREENE: Martinez says with millions more Americans now unemployed, he and his colleagues feel lucky to be working.
