The surge in cases of the Omicron strain of Covid has been a central feature of the pandemic over the past few weeks, since the variant was first identified in southern Africa in late November.

With the variant spreading so readily and at least partially evading vaccine-produced immunity, the question for professional cleaners was clear: would they need to be carrying out more deep cleans of commercial premises as a result?

The answer, it seems, is yes. With confirmed case numbers now running at around 200,000 a day, the infection is rife across the country and the government’s chief scientific advisor Sir Patrick Vallance has publicly declared that Omicron should not be treated as a completely “mild” infection, despite some optimists suggesting it could act as a ‘natural vaccine’ against the disease in general.

All this means that the Covid cleaning news is a story of busy times ahead. Omicron may be milder than Delta, but not sufficiently so for it to just be allowed to sweep through the population without overwhelming the NHS. Indeed, as the Evening Standard notes, the level of infection in England may have been as high as one in 15 at Christmas.

Add to that the fact that Sir Patrick noted that nobody can quite be sure when the Omicron wave will peak, and it is likely that there will be many outbreaks in premises that will then need a deep clean.

There have been several recent cases of this already. Shortly before Christmas, an outbreak of Covid among staff at Edinburgh Castle forced a deep clean of the historic bastion, while the Southend Echo reported that a pub in Leigh-on-Sea had a deep clean after it was also forced to close for the same reason.

Outbreaks in December might still have come from the Delta strain, but as long as Omicron and any more mutant strains that follow are not so mild as to no longer pose a significant threat to public health, deep cleaning could be a common job in the months ahead.