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The world witnessed a pandemic that is unprecedented in whole respect. After Covid-19 outbreak, the ways and means of connecting, communicating and socializing has transformed at multifarious levels. This dramatic shift is in fact changing with every day passed but certainly culminated into a morphed picture of future for the human civilization.
For the governments worldwide, the biggest challenge is to ensure the safety of their citizens. Not only the governments have to deal with the containment of virus but also have to make sure it does not infiltrate into healthy citizens.
To make it happen, both the govt. and the citizens have to act responsibly. For the govt. it is important to issue guidelines that would include free templates on Covid-19 and social distancing, avoiding mass gathering, lockdown restrictions for states, public transport disruption, and the most important is pushing people to stay at home. And, for the citizens it is imperative to follow it with unwavering dedication.
The viral infection is not expected to vanish anywhere sooner. And, it will be here to stay with humans forever coming back each year as a report by Bloomberg highlighted. Thus, making it vital for humans to learn and adapt to the new virus in time to come.
The adaption would not be restricted to only individuals but also where clusters of individual exist including businesses. And these inevitable changes would soon be reflected in the safety measures adopted by private businesses and govt. departments after lockdown restrictions are lifted.
The businesses both small and big would be at a bigger risk of virus spread after COVID-19 restrictions are relieved, due to a large number of staff working and lack of stringent measures. However, if safety measures are properly followed, the risk could be mitigated to a negligible level.
What Safety Measures Should Be Followed by Businesses?
The rapidly spreading virus is taking leaps of numbers and infecting a massive number of people every day. In fact around 5 million people have been infected worldwide. Therefore, it is important for businesses to follow stringent norms and guidelines issued by the Government labor department of the US mentioned.
1. Identification and Isolation
To ensure the safety and health aspects of the workers, the businesses needs to ensure that any potential carrier of coronavirus infection is identified and isolated in a prompt manner. For this, a proper mechanism has to be set at the ground level to monitor the body temperature each time an individual steps in to the workplace facility.
2. Safety and Protective Equipment
Safety and protective gears such as face masks, safety goggles, face shield, and personal protection gears are the barriers of safety against COVID-19 infection. Ensure each of the workers wears the face mask appropriately covering the mouth and nose. PPE gears would be mandated for individuals with major risks. These gears would be essential for infection control and should be critical to ensure depending on the exposure level of the working people.
3. Staff Training
Depending on the vicinity of the workplace and its exposure risk to the COVID-19 virus, staff or workers should be properly trained on how to avoid being infected virus, maintaining proper hygiene, identifying the suspected person with infection and how to deal with them. Along with this, there should be measures to adjust work responsibility according to their flexibility.
4. Personal Hygiene
Although these guidelines are quite general, but these steps are absolutely necessary for the safety of workers. It includes frequent washing of hands for 20 seconds, following etiquettes like covering nose and mouth while sneezing and coughing. Avoiding contact with eyes, nose, and mouth until sanitized and washed off properly.
Apart from this, the business managers must keep close eye on the availability of dispensers and hand sanitizers wherever required, so the workers can keep them away from any potential infection risk.
5. Avoiding meetings and maintaining social distancing
Meetings can brings groups of people in close contact; instead, try circulating important briefings by written messages. Try oral greetings without touching any of the individuals.
If possible, arrange the seats in a manner to follow the 1-meter norm of social distancing. To avoid any possibility of virus spread by air, ensure proper ventilation in the work facility. Keep doors and windows open to maintain the flow of air. Always, keep an emergency response plan ready in case any potential risk appears.
6. Bring Technology into Play for Communication
The more the people stay apart, the more is better to stay protected against infection. Technology can do this with all the resources present around us. Choose teleworking instead of direct communication. Email could be used to send reports and instant messengers could deliver important information effortlessly.
7. Prepare a contingency plan
Coronavirus pandemic is an emergency situation which is not anyway normal. While operating a business, the health factor of both the employers and employee are at risk. So, it is essential to always be prepared with a contingency plan in case of any unwanted situation may arise. Proper emphasis should be laid on keeping an active health response system on active mode. So, if any eventuality arises, you are there to respond with the quickest solution there.
Apart from it, you should be prepared to work with reduced numbers of people when a big part of your workforce cannot appear on the workplace. Here, offering them an opportunity to work from home for a short span of time could be the ideal way to ensure mutual benefits.
8. Keep them Confident and Motivated
The time is not normal and everyone around is battling with hardship both mentally and physically. So, the employees might be stressed out or even be depressed, take them with ease, offer them more flexibility and try to leverage the resources to meet productivity goals at the workplace. Motivating them and imbibing word of confidence could increase efficiency comprehensively.
Final Words
Difficult times don’t last for long time. But, keeping the society, community and workplace safe is of utmost priority for people who form the very core of it. Keeping these safety measures in place is inevitable to a healthy and bright future that lies at the end of this dark tunnel.
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This content is brought to you by Sameer Negi.
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