Recommended Safety Measures To Reopen Offices After COVID-19 Lockdown
By Forever Expert
2020-04-14
The beginning of the year 2020 marked the outspread of a deadly viral disease named COVID-19. This disease is known to be caused by a virus named SARS-CoV-2 or the novel coronavirus. Declared as a ‘pandemic’ by the WHO, this lethal viral disease originated from the Wuhan city of China. Due to this viral disease, the death toll around the world is constantly rising. Since COVID-19 is an infectious disease, most of the countries around the world are under lockdown. However, businesses will need to be resumed sooner or later. For safe operations, the WHO has recommended safety measures to reopen offices after COVID-19 lockdown.
Before checking COVID-19 precautionary measures at work, let’s know important details about the COVID-19 disease.
What is COVID-19?
The SARS-CoV-2 or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 is a virus that causes the deadly COVID-19 disease. COVID-19 or novel coronavirus disease majorly affects the respiratory system. However, the symptoms of this viral disease are far more painful and lethal. Also, this infectious disease spreads similarly to that of a common cold.
Thus, if an infected person coughs or sneezes nearby, you can easily get infected through saliva droplets on the surfaces or in the air. Also, standing in close proximity of an infected person while he talks, can get you infected. Lastly, touching a spot onto which an infected person has sneezed or coughed and discharged saliva droplets infects the healthy person. For example, touching keyboards, mouse, doorknobs, tables, machines, and lift buttons, etc can spread COVID infection.
The symptoms of this lethal infectious disease include fever, cough, cold, diarrhea, vomiting, and breathlessness, etc. Generally, these symptoms automatically go away after a few days of getting infected. However, the symptoms might get worse in some severe cases and the patient needs to be hospitalized. In the hospital, the patients are kept in isolation to avoid infection to other patients.
Most commonly affected people by this viral disease are known to have a weak immune system, health disorders, and 50+ ages. Though, recent medical studies claim that anyone can get affected by this viral disease, irrespective of age, or health condition.
COVID-19 Prevention In The Workplace
To control the coronavirus from spreading, it is very essential for all the societal sectors to come together. This doesn’t only include the residential areas but also the offices & industries. Thus, the WHO (World Health Organization) has provided some safety tips to ensure COVID-19 prevention in the workplace. The following are the best methods to prevent COVID-19 from spreading at the workplace.
Measures to be implemented at workplace before reopening
Here are some of the top workplace measures to reduce COVID-19 spread before the reopening of offices.
It is highly recommended to sanitize the office furniture, machinery, and all other areas to avoid COVID-19 spread. The sanitization should be done every time before starting work and also, at regular intervals while working.
If feasible, the managing directors should get a disinfectant chamber installed at the office entrances.
One of the best components of COVID-19 safety in the workplace is temperature checking. Install infrared thermometers to check the body temperature of every employee at the office entrances.
It is highly recommended to switch the attendance system from biometric fingerprints to a card-based one. This will help in averting the employees from touching a single spot & thus, preventing viral outspread chances.
Alcohol-based hand sanitizers must be installed or placed at the desks and important spots at the office. Also, soaps and tissue papers should always be present in the washrooms for all the employees.
As per the governmental orders, businesses may choose the most appropriate work timings, shifts, and work from home allowances. For this, every office needs to get permission from the Corporate Office.
Ways to prevent COVID-19 at workplace while working
Now let’s check out the essential tips to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at work. By following these office tips, businesses can contain infections and continue their work without any hassles.
Employees are advised not to get together at a single place like the entrances, exits, and other common rooms. Social distancing is one of the most essential COVID-19 tips for workplace safety.
All employees must avoid personally meeting with visitors. Instead, adopting electronic means of communication like phone calls is recommended. If meeting a visitor is necessary, proper screening must be done at the entrance, and masks should be mandatory.
Also, it is recommended to avoid gatherings for seminars, meetings, training, and interviews for now. These should be kept at hold until this COVID-19 problem is fully solved.
Regular use of disinfectant sprays before office, during office hours, and after office hours is highly recommended. This is surely the best way to disinfect the office desks.
Traveling should be completely avoided for employees unless it’s a completely unavoidable situation.
Communication and transfer of information should be done through digital mediums like emails or cloud storage. This is because hard copies like files or pen drives need to be touched with hands. Thus, the chances of viral infection spreading can increase significantly.
Employees must wear necessary masks during traveling to work and during work hours to promote safety.
To implement social distancing properly, it is very important to change work methodologies. This may include web-conferencing, phone calls, and texting to avoid meeting in person as much as possible.
The workplace transportation should be regularly disinfected, before picking up and after dropping of employees.
All the medical teams should always be wearing high-quality protection equipment at work. This will help in protecting them from getting infected, as many such cases have already been reported globally.
Every employee, laborer, trainee, and intern should wear the best quality face masks before entering the workplace. Also, the employees working as security, receptionist, gatekeeper, cook, & housekeeping must wear both masks & gloves.
WHO’s COVID-19 Tips For Workplace Safety
The world health organization (WHO) is continuously releasing important information and prevention tips for COVID-19. As we know, the livelihood of most people around the world depends upon their salaries & work. Thus, the entrepreneurs will soon have to reopen their offices and restart the work. This is the reason why the WHO has provided company prevention measures for COVID-19.
Keep The Office Hygienic – To prevent the outspread of COVID-19, office hygiene is very important. The use of disinfectant sprays, soaps, and hand sanitizers is the key to maintain office hygiene. These are must-follow COVID-19 cleaning steps for office staff.
Personal Hygiene – Just like office hygiene, employees should be focused on maintaining their personal hygiene as well. For this purpose, hand sanitizers, face masks, and gloves must be used frequently.
Tissues – Disposable tissues should always be available in the washrooms, along with closed bins. This will help in preventing the infection from spreading through touch or air.
Work From Home For The Sick – If any of the employees are sick with cold or other Coronavirus symptoms, direct them to work from home. Also, make them seek immediate medical attention to rule out COVID-19. Also, motivate and support them by not cutting their salary while working from home or during leaves.
Pre-Travel Tips – If traveling is unavoidable for any of your employees, make a prior inquiry about COVID-19 situations at the destination places. If the situation is worse, it’s better to call off the traveling program. Contrarily, if traveling is mandatory, it’s better to send younger & healthier employees.
During Travel Tips – While traveling, make sure that the employees have alcohol-based sanitizers, high-quality face masks, and gloves. Also, they must carry their lunch rather than eating anything from outside. Furthermore, avoid sitting or standing in close proximity to any person with cold or cough.
Post-Travel Tips – After returning from the business tours, each employee should self-quarantine for at least 14 days. During this time, he/she should closely pay attention to any Coronavirus symptoms like cold, cough, body ache, and fever, etc.
What If An Employee Gets Infected?
If any of the employees gets infected with COVID-19, then companies should provide them paid leaves. This will help to prevent the employee from getting discouraged or stressed about livelihood.
When the COVID-19 report of the employee comes negative, he/she should be directed to work from home until they recover fully. Furthermore, direct the infected employee to get regular medical checkups done to prevent the health condition from worsening.
Encouraging the employees to be honest about their health and promising proper support is also highly recommended to entrepreneurs.
General tips for prevention of COVID-19 spread at the office
Companies should have a contingency plan for COVID-19 spread at their workplace. For this, every entrepreneur should have direct contact with the nearest medical support centers. Companies should mandatorily conduct regular health checkups of the employees. Also, it is very important to educate and spread safety awareness among all your employees through emails, pictures, video messages, or flyers in the office. Furthermore, everyone must understand and implement the WHO’s COVID-19 related cleaning advice for the workplace.
Here are some other essential tips for not spreading COVID-19 at the office. By following these COVID-19 tips at work, you will easily be able to prevent this viral infection from spreading.
Masks and gloves should be used mandatorily to avoid the spread of coronavirus at the workplace.
Also, the used gloves and masks should be disposed off appropriately to avoid infection outspread. This is one of the most critical formula.
All the health and safety departments should work in educating employees of each level about the coronavirus infection. The only proper information will help in defeating this deadly virus.
All the employees must avoid believing or spreading rumors or invalid news at the workplace to prevent panic situations.
The Bottom Line!
Well, this answers your question ‘COVID-19 – What measures do I need to take as a takeaway?’. These are the most important & must-know ways to prevent COVID-19 in the workplace. Most of these tips have been highly recommended by the biggest health organization in the world i.e. WHO. Currently, most of the countries around the world are on lockdown. However, sooner or later, the governments will decide to lift the lockdown and people will resume their work. This is the reason why the implementation of these coronavirus prevention tips is very crucial
This global pandemic is currently creating havoc all around the world. This is why it’s high time for us to work together with the government to beat this deadly virus. While people quarantined at home are already doing their bit, the businesses also need to do the same. With proper information and precautionary measures, we can easily ensure COVID-19 prevention in the workplace.
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