Lockdown lift: How to keep your workplace safe

After five whole weeks of lockdown, it feels good to be back to work. But is your workplace safe? There are a few steps you can take to make your workplace safe and prevent the transmission of coronavirus. It is not just the virus, these can also prevent the spread of infections, such as colds, […]

After five whole weeks of lockdown, it feels good to be back to work.

But is your workplace safe?

There are a few steps you can take to make your workplace safe and prevent the transmission of coronavirus.

It is not just the virus, these can also prevent the spread of infections, such as colds, flu and stomach bugs—protecting your customers, contractors and employees.

These steps “already reduce working days lost due to illness and stop or slow the spread of COVID-19 if it arrives at one of your workplaces,” says the World Health Organisation in a guideline on keep the workplace safe.

Make sure your workplaces are clean and hygienic

Your workplace is made of surfaces, like desks and tables, and objects, like intercoms and keyboards. They need to be wiped with disinfectant regularly.

And why would you want to do that?

Surfaces touched by employees and customers are contaminated, and that’s “one of the main ways” that Covid-19 spreads.

Promote “regular and thorough” handwashing

This applies to employees, contractors and customers.

Keep hand sanitisers in prominent places around the workplace, and make sure they are regularly refilled.

Display public-health posters promoting hand washing.

Get occupational health and safety officers to brief in-house meetings with information to promote handwashing.

Why? Washing your hands with soap and water kills the virus on your hands and prevents the spread of coronavirus.

Good respiratory hygiene

Display posters promoting respiratory hygiene.

Ensure that face masks and / or paper tissues are available at your workplaces, for those who develop a runny nose or cough at work, along with closed bins for hygienically disposing of them.

In this case, ordinary face masks are required, not the medical N95 masks.

Why? Good respiratory hygiene prevents the spread of COVID-19.

Staying home

Brief employees, contractors and customers that if COVID-19 starts spreading in your community anyone with even a mild cough or low-grade fever (37.3 C or more) needs to stay at home.

They should also stay home (or work from home) if they have had to take simple medications, such as paracetamol/acetaminophen, ibuprofen or aspirin, which may mask symptoms of infection

Keep communicating and promoting the message that people need to stay at home even if they have just mild symptoms of COVID-19.

Display posters with this message in your workplaces.

Make clear to employees that they will be able to count this time off as sick leave.