A new report published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine outlines what businesses and other institutions can do to safely resume operations amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Employees and customers should do all the well-documented things known to help protect against the spread of disease: washing hands frequently, wearing masks, staying apart and making sure people stay home if they don’t feel well. But the report suggests employers may take disciplinary action against employees who don’t abide by these guidelines.
The report, written by healthcare lawyer Mark Barnes of Ropes & Gray LLP and Dr. Paul Sax, head of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, also advises employers to offer or extend sick-leave benefits to encourage workers to stay at home when feeling sick.
Businesses can also place partitions or barriers between workers or between employees and customers and improve ventilation and air circulation, Barnes and Sax advised.
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Staggered work schedules can keep employees safer, as can accommodations to workers at a higher risk of getting seriously ill from the virus, including the option to work from home. Learning institutions should offer remote learning opportunities for students with underlying medical conditions.
There should be coordination between businesses and local governments about reopening schools, day care, and day treatment centers.
“Resumption of day care and school operations is a crucial factor, because many employees are simply unable, given family circumstances, to return to work if education and day care for children and elderly or disabled family members remain closed,” the report said.
The use of mass transportation, as well as the social, religious and leisure activities of workers outside work hours are other big challenges businesses face when reopening, according to the report, which notes that many businesses have adopted daily temperature checks and health questionnaires to determine if an employee or customer represents a risk. For residential colleges or schools, the report recommends the institution provides a place where students can isolate before traveling home.
As for testing in the workplace, the report notes it “holds promise for controlling workplace transmission but also has serious limitations,” adding that when widely available, “antigen tests probably will have greater specificity but may have reduced sensitivity” compared to other tests. Once there’s an increase in testing capacity, employers can also deploy contact tracing in the workplace, the report said.