Disinfection and epidemic prevention measures are getting underway in office buildings across China, as many enterprises will resume business in the coming week.

At one such office in the northeastern city of Shenyang, 60 employees started working earlier to ensure a safe environment for people coming back to work in the building housing 55 domestic and foreign companies.

For Sun Longjun, an office janitor, the extended Spring Festival holiday break doesn't equal more leisure time. She and other colleagues used the holiday to get a head start at work, making sure everything was disinfected. Her day starts at eight in the morning – first she makes sure that she's healthy and prepared for her daily disinfection duties. For the rest of the day, Sun and her colleagues work to make sure every corner of the building is clean.

Airtight and public assembly areas are the main focus of her work, as suggested by infectious disease experts. Sun said that her efforts include regularly checking the keypad protectors they added to the elevator to prevent cross-infection and spraying disinfectant whenever they can. And they will also collect contaminated facial masks that have their own particular disposal procedures. "My family worries about me working in public spaces while they're all at home, but everyone should offer to help when there's trouble, for the sake of our family and others," said Sun.

The property management crew is not fighting the battle alone. Li Jin, manager of the team's cleaning and safety department admitted that their own capabilities are limited. It's partly because the novel coronavirus is reported to have a long incubation period, which suggests body temperature measurement can only indicate suspected cases. "So we have been guiding and helping our client companies to confirm that the conditions of their returning employees are in accordance with government regulations, to ensure those from epidemic-hit areas are quarantined properly," he said.

Li said his team has prepared to use special protective equipment for three months, to prepare for when the building's footfall exceeds 1,000 per day, about 50 times over the holiday period. More importantly, he hopes this can raise clients' confidence in resuming business.

Weng Fengyan, sales manager of XiamenAir's Shenyang bureau who spoke to CGTN in the lobby of the office building, said that there has been some worry but they have been paying close attention to the changing epidemic situation and the market. The manager said that was also why she returned to the workplace ahead of schedule to prepare for follow-up work. "After the holiday, we plan to rely more on email, WeChat and the internet to communicate with our customers. And we will keep the office disinfected as required," she added.

For catering and retail businesses based in the building, when their business gets back on track depends on how the epidemic continues to unfold and be dealt with. They are probably facing bigger challenges themselves and to meet their needs, the building's property management are trying their best to help them with rent and partnerships in this difficult time. It's all about finding the best solution for both health security and healthy economy.