The low-cost measures below will help prevent the spread of coronavirus in your workplace, such as colds, flu and stomach bugs, and protect your customers, contractors, and employees.
Employers should start doing these things now, even if coronavirus has not arrived in the communities where they operate. These measures can reduce working days lost due to illness and stop or slow the spread of coronavirus if it arrives at one of your workplaces.
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Make sure your workplaces are clean and hygienic
– Surfaces (e.g. desks and tables) and objects (e.g. telephones, keyboards) need to be wiped with disinfectant regularly
– Why? Because contamination on surfaces touched by employees and customers is one of the main ways that coronavirus spreads.
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Promote regular and thorough hand-washing by employees, contractors, and customers
– Put sanitizing hand rub dispensers in prominent places around the workplace. Make sure these dispensers are regularly refilled
– Display posters promoting hand-washing
– ask your local public health authority for these or consult www.who.int
– Combine with other communication measures such as offering guidance from occupational health and safety officers, briefings at meetings, and information on intranet sites to promote hand-washing
– Make sure that staff, contractors, and customers have access to places where they can wash their hands with soap and water
– Why? Because washing kills the virus on your hands and prevents the spread of coronavirus.
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Promote good respiratory hygiene in the workplace
– Display posters promoting respiratory hygiene. Combine this with other communication measures such as guidance from occupational health and safety officers, briefing at meetings, and information on the intranet, etc.
– Ensure that face masks 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
– Why? Because good respiratory hygiene prevents the spread of coronavirus.
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Advise employees and contractors to consult national travel advice before going on business trips.
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Brief your employees, contractors, and customers that if coronavirusstarts 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 promoting the message that people need to stay at home even if they have only mild symptoms of coronavirus
– Display posters with this message in your workplaces. Combine this with other communication channels commonly used in your organization or business 1 Ordinary medical masks rather than N95 masks
– Your occupational health services, local public health authority, or other partners may have developed campaign materials to promote this message
– Make clear to employees that they will be able to count this time off as sick leave