COVID-19 Sanitation San Antonio Texas | Coronavirus Cleaning

Cleaning, Sanitizing, and Disinfecting: Is There a Difference?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the differences between cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting are as follows:

• Cleaning removes dirt, germs, and other contaminants found on surfaces and objects. While the cleaning process removes germs, it does not necessarily kill them. Instead, it reduces the amount of germs in a given surface, thereby lowering the chance of spreading infection.
• Sanitizing reduces the amount of germs in a given surface and kills more bacteria, lowering them to a safe level as deemed by public health standards. Sanitation, though, may not eliminate all viruses.

Disinfecting uses chemicals to kill germs, pathogens, and microorganisms. Although significantly reduces the risk of spreading infection, the disinfection process does not necessarily clean dirt and other impurities from surfaces or objects.