Knight’s sanitizing service in demand as churches disinfect

It took Rudy van Berkel just two hours to sanitize St. James Church in Abbotsford.

Van Berkel has been running Gypsy Rug Cleaners and Deodorizing Services as a one-man service (with a few part-time staff) for 15 years. But, in the last few weeks, he has noticed a steady increase in phone calls and requests for sanitizing, and he suspects it has to do with COVID-19.

“Everybody is panicking right now,” he told The B.C. Catholic.

Health authorities in Wuhan, China, first discovered people were becoming infected with a new strain of coronavirus in January. There, COVID-19 devastated tens of thousands of lives with severe respiratory problems, killed thousands of people, and sent whole regions of the country into lockdown.

In Canada, at press time 736 cases were identified (231 of them in B.C.) and nine people have died.

While the numbers are comparatively low, van Berkel says more churches, daycares, and doctors’ offices in the Lower Mainland are looking for ways to prevent any potential spread of the virus. A member of the Knights of Columbus, he was recently called in to sanitize two seniors and care homes in Vancouver run by that organization.

He’s pleased to give places like St. James Church or Columbus Tower “a clean slate.” Harmful bacteria gone, it’s up to the people who run the facility to put measures in place to keep it virus-free.

Van Berkel’s method involves using hospital-grade disinfectant and “fogging” a building with it, sanitizing without the need to wipe down every surface. The process saves time – something he expects he’ll need more of in the near future.

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