Reopening readiness

Are you prepared to reopen your business?

With more than 10 million cases of COVID-19 confirmed worldwide, and nearly 2.7 million of those cases occurring in the United States, it’s clear that COVID-19 remains a concern, even as businesses and institutions reopen.

Reopening requires procedural shifts

Although many states mandated closures in the early months of the pandemic, some businesses also chose to close or reduce hours to protect their employees and their customers. As businesses, offices, and universities across the US open their doors again, much has changed. Today, each state has different regulations and mandates around how to proceed.

Some of these regulations we’ve already seen in action. There’s also been a proactive approach to protecting employees and customers. Businesses have marked on the floor what a six-foot distance looks like. Restaurants and places that require face-to-face checkout have installed large Plexiglass screens to intercept miniscule droplets. Grocery stores have set up one-way traffic in aisles so as to minimize a lack of social distancing.

Actions to consider as you plan

However, as larger organizations and businesses reopen, the question becomes how to efficiently and effectively handle the daily screening of your employees or occupants for your re-opening? How will you know if someone who is diagnosed with COVID-19 has interacted with other employees? Having answers to these questions means that you will be prepared when the inevitable occurs and an employee becomes sick.

When you have a plan in place, it will be quick and easy to track down and notify those who might have been exposed to the virus before the diagnosis occurred.

A fast response means that affected employees have an opportunity to quarantine, thereby further slowing the spread of the virus among your customers and employees. During health crises, having accurate information, readily available, is critical to eliminating exposure. The great news is that now there are many tools out there to assist tracing and screening.

Why daily screening?

Daily screening is critical to maintaining the safety, both of your employees or occupants, and your clients or customers. What exactly is meant, though, by daily screening? Many places conduct temperature checks outside of the entrance, both for employees and for customers. Some businesses also require employees to answer questions about how they feel prior to entering.

While these measures are helpful and provide insight, they also are not sufficient. We’ve learned that many who have COVID-19 are asymptomatic and in the time period immediately before symptoms appear, shedding of the virus occurs at higher rates. This is where contact tracing becomes key.

Contact Tracing

Contact tracing allows you to utilize security systems that are already in place, such as badging, to track exposure that has already occurred. An effective contact tracing system provides you with a reliable risk-mitigation strategy and an ability to respond quickly to information of a positive COVID-19 diagnosis.

Contact tracing systems can provide you with data such as:

• how long someone was in proximity to someone who was infected
• the access areas where contact occurred between someone infected and someone who was not
• an examination of the specific dates within which exposure occurred

This is only the beginning of what contact tracing can provide.

At Wycliffe, we offer many solutions to help you create and execute strategy for managing the effective and efficient screening of your employees and/or occupants. We know that COVID-19 has changed the landscape of business, and we are here to help you navigate it. Reach out to us today to learn more.