Facility Considerations

 Develop protocols and set up quarantine rooms to use in the event team members develop
symptoms or feel ill.
 Determine if actual physical punching in is needed or if it can be temporarily forgone or
completed using an alternative procedure, such as a simple checklist at the entrance.
 Set up a thermal imaging camera station (using floor markings and one-way traffic flow). Imaging
must be focused on the head area. If no thermal imaging, non-contact laser thermometers can
be used on the forehead.
 Install hand sanitizer dispensers (ideally, no touch) in high foot-traffic areas such as entrances,
exits, and transition areas.
 Assess inventory of cleaning supplies and disinfectants. Encourage their use and re-order as
necessary.
 Consider more frequent cleaning schedules for commonly-touched surfaces and higher-risk
equipment.
 Identify high-risk locations/surfaces in the facility and develop sanitation standard operating
procedures to ensure these locations are routinely and adequately cleaned and sanitized.
 Identify frequently-touched surfaces throughout the facility and ensure these surfaces are
routinely and adequately cleaned and sanitized.
 Where reasonable, leave doors open to avoid frequent touching of door handles.
 Consider making high-traffic aisle ways one way. Mark with arrows using tape on the floors and
add signage to aisleways.
 Post Social Distancing signage in poster format in multiple languages appropriate to your
workforce.
 Encourage mid-management people to keep a close watch on workers’ activities.
 Encourage employees to:
o Effectively wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds and use
alcohol-based hand sanitizer
o Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth
o Cough or sneeze into the bend of the arm or into a tissue and throw away the tissue
o Avoid high-touch surfaces where possible
o Do not shake hands and use non-contact greetings like waving
o Stay home when sick
o Use any personal protective equipment (PPE) as directed
o Practice social distancing, i.e. keep a distance of 2 metres between individuals
o Discourage workers from using other workers’ phones, desks, offices, or other work
tools and equipment, when possible.
o Provide disposable wipes so that commonly used surfaces (for example, doorknobs,
keyboards, remote controls, desks, other work tools and equipment) can be wiped
down by employees before each use.

Work Stations
 Where possible and practical, adjust work areas so that workers are spaced at least six feet from
one another. This may mean spreading shifts over a longer day or adding an extra shift to
operations.
 Provide physical barriers between workstations. If plexiglass is not available or cost prohibitive,
consider using rolls of poly sheeting. Focus first on areas where workers are required to be
within two metres (six feet), such as assembly lines.
 When workers must be within two meters, ensure that each worker wears a mask and practices
safe and frequent hand hygiene. Workers may also wear safety glasses to prevent touching eyes
and faces. Disinfect frequently, use anti-fog wipes to prevent workers needing to take off the
glasses.
 Wherever possible, do not allow employees’ shared tools. Any tools that must be shared must
be disinfected before and after each worker uses them.
 Eliminate huddle meetings and if not practical, minimize the number of attendees.

Operations and Supply Chain

 Develop a real-time situational awareness of your supply chains. Assess links in your supply chain
and identify potentially weak ones, especially in places heavily affected by COVID-19.
 Prepare for supply chain pivots that could require identifying alternative suppliers.
 Improve your supply chain visibility and lines of communication to help detect potential
problems and remediate early. If you don’t have digital supply chain transparency solutions
already in place, create greater transparency through daily self-reporting with critical suppliers. 
 Keep an open and regular dialogue with your suppliers and customers on how they may be
impacted by COVID-19 and how their forecast demand could affect your business.
 Seek alternatives that allow you to help preserve relationships, co-create solutions and sustain
both businesses. It’s possible that a third-party provider may prove to be a critical point of
failure in creating a response to COVID-19.

Workforce
 Confirm your employees are safe and know how to protect themselves. Institute sanitation rules
in the workplace, and assess mobility policies to help encourage remote working, where possible
and necessary. Ask employees who are sick to stay home until they are better. Eliminate non-
essential travel.
 Discuss change management and flexible work arrangements for employees in finance, human
resources and other departments whose presence on-site is not mission-critical.
 Assess strategies and plans to retain and deploy the workforce during the slowdown, and
establish risk mitigation programs for employees who may need to work on-site.
 Invest in education campaigns for front-line employees who have to be on-site to confirm they
know how to minimize the spread of disease and what to do if they feel ill.
 Gather necessary data on employees (geography, visa, etc.) and consider tracking movements
during the crisis.

Shipping/ Receiving
 Stagger delivery to minimize contact.
 Arrange for contactless delivery wherever possible.

Workers and Shifts

 Keep your shifts a mix of the same people and try to prevent people swapping shifts. This
will mean that a staff member who catches the virus is less likely to spread it across multiple
teams in your business.
 Encourage staff to keep their distance form one another when working and introduce
something like a two-metre rule if feasible.
 Discourage staff from entering parts of your site unless essential to their role.
 Ban handshaking in the office.
 Rotate lunch and break times to avoid large gatherings.
 Encourage staff to bring in their own food and to minimise use of communal kitchens.
 If you are limiting production then it could be possible to do one of two things:
o Assign different shifts different machines so as to lower the opportunity for
coronavirus to be transmitted via surfaces.
o If reduced capacity will mean shutting down some machines entirely then you can
ramp up your cleaning regime on the machines you will be using.
o You can plan to add non-operating days or reduce operation time from double shifts
to a single shift for some of the plants and production lines.

Visitors
 Minimise visitors from your facilities.
 Ensure that only visitors who absolutely need to come to your facilities enter the premises.
 Move all possible meetings online.
 Your reception staff will be most vulnerable because of their frequent interaction with
visitors. Ensure they have access to hand sanitisers and key areas are cleaned frequently
throughout the day.
 Ensure clear requests to clean hands are clearly displayed at key areas, such as in your
reception area.

Vulnerable Workers
 Consider giving tasks that can be done in self isolation to those aged 50 or over, those who
have an underlying condition (such as a respiratory condition, cardiovascular disease or
diabetes).
 Carry out a new risk assessment for all pregnant women, to identify the risks and consider
what measures can be put in place to protect them.
Decontamination
If a worker does become ill and you need to clean your facilities then it is important to do it as
correctly as possible to avoid cross contamination.

Engineering Controls
 Ensure appropriate air-handling systems are installed and maintained in healthcare facilities.
 CDC recommends that patients with known or suspected COVID-19 should be placed in an
airborne infection isolation room (AIIR), if available.
 Increase ventilation rates.
 Increase the percentage of outdoor air that circulates into the facilities.

Administrative Controls
 Develop and implement policies that reduce exposure, such as cohorting (i.e., grouping)
COVID-19 patients when single rooms are not available.
 Post signs requesting patients and family members to immediately report symptoms of
respiratory illness on arrival at the healthcare facility and use disposable face masks.
 Consider offering enhanced medical monitoring of workers during COVID-19 outbreaks.
 Provide all workers with job-specific education and training on preventing transmission of
COVID-19, including initial and routine/refresher training.
 Ensure that psychological and behavioral support is available to address employee stress.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

 Most workers at high or very high exposure risk likely need to wear gloves, a gown, a face
shield or goggles, and either a face mask or a respirator, depending on their job tasks and
exposure risks.
 PPE ensembles may vary, especially for workers in laboratories or other facilities who may
need additional protection against chemicals and other materials to which they may be
exposed.
 Additional PPE may include medical/surgical gowns, fluid-resistant coveralls, aprons, or
other disposable or reusable protective clothing. Gowns should be large enough to cover the
areas requiring protection.