Covid-19 has presented employers with a unique set of challenges relating to how they conduct business. Pre-pandemic modes of operation are no longer viable as they encourage the virus’s spread. However, the show must go on, as the saying goes, and business owners and managers have no choice but to resume operations, albeit with some significant changes to protect employees, customers, and members of the public.
Businesses that follow public health regulations and introduce additional precautions can help ensure their workplaces mitigate the risk of a Covid-19 outbreak. Here are some examples.
Onsite Testing For Businesses
Like any mass gathering, being in a working environment raises the risk of Covid-19 infection. Testing is an ideal way to monitor employees’ Covid-19 status and reduce the risk of an outbreak. Once a person tests positive, their employer can take steps to track and trace those they have been in contact with and quarantine anyone who presents a reasonable risk of having caught Covid from an infected worker.
This keeps workplace infection numbers down, allowing regular business operations to continue.
That’s why Covid-19 testing has become an essential component of many employers’ efforts to prevent an outbreak in a workplace. Companies like Drip Hydration, Covid Clinic, Global 7 Diagnostics, and Color offer Tucson event COVID testing. These companies come to workplaces to conduct Covid-19 tests.
Employers can choose from various testing options, including standard and rapid PCR, antigen, and antibody testing. Trained nurses collect samples from participating employees and manage the process and issuing of results, making ongoing testing hassle-free.
Preparing For A Positive Test Result
Employers need to work on contingency plans for the possibility of a worker testing positive and infecting others during the incubation period before they were aware they were sick. Indeed, an optimal mindset to use is that a Covid-19 outbreak could occur at any time and plan to avoid it. Owners and managers need to audit and evaluate their current setup and adapt it to suit pandemic conditions.
Their most frequent point of departure is reconfiguring their workplace setup, moving workstations to allow more distance between employees, or putting up screens to separate them. Refraining from close contact is one of the simplest measures to prevent a Covid-19 outbreak.
Where the workplace was already overcrowded, employers might consider having people work in shifts to keep occupancy numbers down or allow some employees to continue working from home. This proactive approach is better than waiting for an incident before developing a response plan.
Establishing Contact Protocols
As mentioned before, avoiding physical contact is an effective preventive strategy for dealing with Covid. Employees should observe social distancing regulations wherever possible. Understandably, this is not always possible, especially in stores and restaurants where the staff work side-by-side at close quarters and face-to-face with clients. If this is the case, employers should put up screens that act as barriers to prevent the virus from spreading through the air between people.
Many employers keep common areas, such as breakrooms and kitchens, closed to prevent staff members from gathering there and touching communal objects like countertops and appliance switches. However, this is impossible for bathrooms, which must remain open and accessible. Employers can limit how many people use these facilities at a time and have strict cleaning protocols to prevent a viral outbreak.
Mandatory Mask-Wearing
While state and local laws vary from one area to another, employers can reserve the right to insist that everyone who enters their premises, including staff members, wear masks. Masks reduce the chances of people spreading Covid-19 by breathing the virus into the air from their noses or mouths. However, mask-wearing is only effective when people keep their noses and mouths covered.
Businesses should require mask-wearing from everyone, including vaccinated individuals. Those who receive the vaccine might still become ill with Covid-19. Even if they do not, they could pass it to someone else.
Improved Hygiene Protocols
Another proven way to prevent the spread of Covid-19 is keeping surfaces sanitized. They require more frequent cleaning with alcohol-based sanitizing products that kill the virus. Companies should have protocols ready to manage the frequency of cleaning in bathrooms and other communal areas. Staff members need to be assigned responsibility for sanitizing surfaces during their shifts.
In addition to sanitizing surfaces, employees should also keep their hands sanitized, with employers providing them with the products to use. Signage around the workplace will remind employees to sanitize to prioritize everyone’s safety.