The National Safety Council urges employers to continue to be vigilant with testing despite the recent guideline amendment issued by the CDC. Without a clear rationale for these changes, we continue to recommend employers test workers to ensure a safe workplace.
Around 30% of patients who tested positive for COVID-19 were asymptomatic, according to a new study, and knowledge that people are infected is key. Leadership is needed to expand testing, not limit it. NSC knows safety is vital to both workers’ health and to our national recovery. To that end, NSC has led the call for testing to be a required element of reopening plans for all businesses across the country. Testing is not only necessary to limit virus transmission in workplaces and communities, it’s imperative to prevent another nationwide shutdown.
Remember when working in public the following tips.
Typically, administrative controls are changes in work policy or procedures to reduce or minimize exposure to a hazard. Examples of administrative controls for SARS-CoV-2 include:
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- Encouraging sick workers to stay at home.
- Minimizing contact among workers, clients, and customers by replacing face-to-face meetings with virtual communications and implementing telework if feasible.
- Establishing alternating days or extra shifts that reduce
the total number of employees in a facility at a given time, allowing them to maintain distance from one another while maintaining a full onsite work week. - Discontinuing nonessential travel to locations with ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks. Regularly check CDC travel warning levels at: http://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers.
- Developing emergency communications plans, including a forum for answering workers’ concerns and internet-based communications, if feasible.
- Providing workers with up-to-date education and training on COVID-19 risk factors and protective behaviors (e.g., cough etiquette and care of PPE).
- Training workers who need to use protecting clothing
and equipment how to put it on, use/wear it, and take
it off correctly, including in the context of their current and potential duties. Training material should be easy to understand and available in the appropriate language and literacy level for all worker
Safe work practices are types of administrative controls that include procedures for safe and proper work used to reduce the duration, frequency, or intensity of exposure to a hazard. Examples of safe work practices for SARS-CoV-2 include:
- Providing resources and a work environment that promotes personal hygiene. For example, provide tissues, no-touch trash cans, hand soap, alcohol-based hand rubs containing at least 60 percent alcohol, disinfectants, and disposable towels for workers to clean their work surfaces.
- Requiring regular hand washing or using of alcohol-based hand rubs. Workers should always wash hands when they are visibly soiled and after removing any PPE.
- Post handwashing signs in restrooms.
Keep safe!