Along with medical personnel, custodians are on the front lines of the outbreak, tasked with sanitizing public spaces and helping to temper the spread of a deadly disease.

While many employees and students work from home or online in the midst of a worldwide coronavirus outbreak that threatens to spread in Rhode Island, some workers don’t have that option.

I’m "just a little worried," said Oscar Rosa, a housekeeper in the dining services department at Rhode Island College, where he stood Friday armed with Clorox wipes, a spray bottle and a rag.

Along with medical personnel, custodians are on the front lines of the outbreak, tasked with sanitizing public spaces and helping to temper the spread of the virus that has sickened more than 100,000 worldwide.

"I try to kill all the germs," Rosa said before going off to clean surfaces around the dining hall, including hand railings and door handles, which he said he now does three to four times a shift.

With two confirmed cases of coronavirus in Rhode Island and many more tests pending, some institutions, including schools, offices and places of worship, have announced efforts to ramp up the sanitization of their spaces.

But J. Michael Downey, president of Rhode Island Council 94, a union that represents at least 500 custodial workers across the state, said he is concerned that those responsible for sanitizing these areas are not being treated properly.

"While some people are being told to stay home, they’re telling the janitors to go in, to clean the bathrooms," he said. "We’re very concerned about the health and safety of the people we represent."

Downey said that no union members have come forward to report a lack of access to protective equipment, but he said he would like to see training made available to workers that specifically addresses the coronavirus.

He also said he wants to make sure that managers are treating custodians with the respect they deserve.

"It’s always the lowest-paid people in the building [who] are confronted with the highest problems," he said.

"... They’re going beyond the job, and it would be nice to be recognized."

In East Providence, where two teachers have placed themselves in voluntary quarantine because of potential exposure to the coronavirus, the school department custodians have been asked to perform extra sanitization in the buildings.

They are prepared for the task, though, said Mark Poirier, president of Local 2969, which represents 45 custodians in the East Providence schools. Regular sanitization efforts had already been under way for flu season, he said.

"We had the proper equipment," including goggles, Tyvek suits, N95 masks and gloves, he said.

"You look like an astronaut," he said. "It’s like you’re going into a war zone."

On Feb. 28, custodians disinfected the Silver Spring Elementary School per special request from the school department. A teacher there, who is married to the man who had the state’s first confirmed case of coronavirus, placed herself in voluntary quarantine after teaching for two days.

Earlier this week, staff also sterilized the first floor of East Providence High School, as well as the Career and Technical Center, where another person, who is now in self-quarantine, teaches.

Some custodians have come in for overtime shifts to handle the extra workload, Poirier said, and the task schedule has shifted so that Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, custodians complete their regular duties, while on Tuesdays and Thursdays, they focus on sanitizing the schools.

"This is priority one," he said.

Poirier commended the administration and the custodial staff for the way they’ve responded and said that, despite some initial concerns surrounding the virus, everyone has continued to work hard.

"We have a lot of dedicated people in this city," he said. "We’re here for the kids."

If a custodian were to contract the coronavirus while on duty, he or she could make a case to receive workers’ compensation, said Silvio Napolitano, attorney with Rhode Island Council 94. Members of Local 2969 in the East Providence schools receive 15 paid sick days per year with the possibility to accrue up to 200, according to their contract.

Carmen Castillo, who represents Ward 9 on the Providence City Council and also works as a housekeeper at the Omni Hotel, said her colleagues at the hotel also are being extra cautious.

"We have a meeting every day to let the people know what is going on, how they can protect [themselves]," said Castillo, who is a union steward and member of the executive board for UNITE HERE, Local 217.

At the hotel, which serves travelers from around the world, Castillo said workers use precautions when cleaning rooms where guests are sick or coughing. If a housekeeper sees a sick guest, he or she will inform a manager and then spray the room with disinfectant before going in to clean, she said.

Housekeepers who are members of the union receive six paid sick days and one personal day in their contract, Castillo said.

Apolinar H. Cortez, who was vacuuming the carpet at Rhode Island College’s Adams Library on Friday, said he’s focusing more on disinfecting surfaces, especially in areas where he notices students coughing. In the morning, before students arrive, he sanitizes the computer keyboards in the library.

"We try to do the best that we can and that’s it," said Cortez, who lives in West Warwick. "It’s just more precaution with everything."

Cortez said he does have some concerns about becoming infected with the virus, especially at the college, where he comes into contact with students who travel all over the globe. But he also worries about his wife, who is a nurse at Kent Hospital.

"She’s on the frontline, too," he said.

Anthony Peters, who supervises 75 housekeepers at the college and serves as president of Council 94 Local 2878, said staff there is prepared with the necessary equipment. The college will even hire a private company to help clean the dorms next week while the students are on spring break.

The job of cleaning, though, can’t fall only to custodians, who have their regular duties to complete on top of these extra requests, Downey said.

To truly stem the spread of the virus, he said, every person has to pitch in.

"Everybody can grab a Clorox wipe and clean a little," he said.

"... It would not hurt the superintendent or, for that matter, the governor of the state of Rhode Island to clean the doorknob in her office."

mlist@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7121

On Twitter: @madeleine_list