Much progress has been made with the battle against COVID-19 over the last 6 months. With Ontario entering Stage 3 in most areas as of August 1st, the occupancy of the office buildings has noticeably increased. It’s great to see people coming and going, there is definite positivity in the air, and everyone has been very accepting of the mandatory mask policy for all public spaces recently introduced by York Region.

COVID-19 progress

COVID-19 return to spaces

Almost daily, I run into various tenants and stop to say hello and see how they are doing. There is one thing that I have noticed in my discussions. Obviously, everyone’s main concern is to ensure the safety and well-being of their staff. But, what I have noticed is that there are so many different ways that they are striving to achieve this. Some offices have made sure everyone is physically distanced by spreading out desks as much as possible. Others have created weekly rotations, where one group works one week and the other group the next week, and they rotate. Some tenants have made efforts to allow their staff to continue to work from home for the time-being until after school starts or until there is a vaccine (which some predict could be available in the 1st quarter of 2021).

Cleaning

With regards to cleaning, most tenants have taken it upon themselves to take extra precautions such as wiping down their workstations and wiping down high-touch areas at the start and end of each day. Other tenants have chosen to bring in janitorial companies that perform enhanced wipe down on a more frequent basis or with the use of fog sanitizers. Hand sanitizer is widely available at each of the building entrances and washrooms have been adapted to be fully touchless – the faucets, soap dispensers, paper towel dispenser and most toilets are operated by touch-free sensors thus eliminating the need to have people physically touch them. This cuts down greatly the risk of germ-spread. Armadale was a pioneer in this regard as the touchless systems were installed almost 10 years ago.

Public Health – best practices

There are 3 consistent practices that we are regularly being reminded of by local Public Health Units

1. wearing a mask when in the common areas of the building;
2. continue to practice physical distancing – at least 2 metres apart; and
3. washing/sanitizing your hands often to ensure the spread of COVID-19 is mitigated as much as possible.

Armadale Property Management continues to monitor this pandemic very closely and we will adapt and make changes to our services as needed. For now, we must all continue to do what we are doing as this is clearly keeping us on the path to success. We are all in this together.

Stay well, stay healthy, and stay positive – Peter Sestito, Senior Property Manager