In this hospital, cleaning services were outsourced. According to the contract and the cleaning and disinfection standard operating protocol (SOP), during terminal disinfection, the housekeeping staff applied a chlorine-based detergent, Antisapril Detergent %, Angelini, followed by a chlorine-based disinfectant (Deornet Clor (COSÌ, Forlì-Cesena, Italy), active chlorine mgr/L) on furniture surfaces and electromedical devices.

A prospective open-labelled cross-over study was conducted in a -bed teaching hospital in Italy from April to June . To evaluate the effectiveness of the UV-C disinfection robot in reducing environmental contamination, sampling was performed in four different critical areas: single occupancy ward room, intensive care unit (ICU) isolation room occupied for a minimum of h, and operating theaters (OTs).

Among the appliable strategies for the improvement of cleaning and disinfection practices are the use of new materials and/or disinfectants, the training and audit of operators, and the use of new automated technologies, which are becoming increasingly important. In particular, no-touch disinfection technologies have the great advantage of not being dependent on the operator, ensuring process repeatability. Furthermore, their effectiveness has been demonstrated even on sites that are difficult to reach with manual intervention. Their use complements but does not replace ordinary cleaning and disinfection protocols. In the past few years, ultraviolet disinfection systems have been widely investigated and used as a way to improve standard cleaning protocols. Currently, ultraviolet devices are automated in order to guarantee process repeatability and reduce human errors. The application of UV devices as an addition to traditional environmental cleaning has become increasingly common due to their effectiveness in reducing the environmental microbial burden in a shorter time compared to other technologies using chemical products [

In that regard, the World Health Organization has reiterated the importance of using this type of disinfection after the adoption of the standard protocol for sanitizing hospital rooms, but, during the COVID- pandemic, the use of UVC radiation was also proposed immediately after the patient has been discharged in order to reduce the risk of the cleaning staff being infected, who can then safely apply the standard protocol [

The disinfection of the air with UV-C is performed by irradiating the upper-room air only, the whole room when unoccupied, or the air flowing inside the air-handling units. The study conducted by McGinn et al. demonstrated the feasibility of using a UV-C robotic system to disinfect both air and surfaces in a radiology environment, where it was two and four times faster than currently used chemical approaches [