DR BRIE’S RECOMMENDATIONS TO KEEP YOU
AND YOUR WORK SPACE HEALTHY
AS YOU KNOW, WE ARE TAKING COVID-19 VERY SERIOUSLY AT DOPC. HERE ARE SOME CONSERVATIVE GUIDELINES YOU ARE WELCOME TO SHARE. WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE OUR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS TO READ, DISTRIBUTE AND ENACT THESE GUIDELINES.
*Any employee with a FEVER over 100.4 (a true fever) should not be allowed to return to work until 14 days after the LAST day of fever.
*Any employee with a sick contact with a FEVER or someone that has tested positive should be asked to work from home or remain with limited access to other employees until 10-14 days have passed with no symptoms.
*Any employee who has traveled to areas with dense infection (certainly this list will change as things evolve but currently – international travel, California, Washington, New York, Colorado counties with high risk – ie Pitkin County) should work from home if possible until 10-14 days have passed with no symptoms.
*Company travel should be restricted – you can not ask your employees to refrain from travel in their own time but you can ask them not to return to working among others after elective travel. Consider a shared work space where all employees who have traveled work together instead of amongst their non traveling co workers upon their return if working from home is not an option.
*If the employee has a public facing job try cross training for employees to transition out of the public facing role for the 10-14 day period above if there is any concern about exposure. This way, your high risk employees do not risk spreading the virus if they are in a period of asymptomatic viral shedding.
*If you have at risk employees – those that may be most impacted by infection – immunocompromised, those with chronic health concerns such as lung disease, asthma, diabetes, heart disease, or those over 60 – ask them to work from home if possible until the risk passes or create safe spaces within your office for these employees. Spaces that have extra hand sanitizer and wipes. Spaces where the door handles, desks and shared surfaces are wiped down several times day with sanitizing solution or wipes.
*Get OCD about shared space cleanliness – water coolers, food areas, surfaces all should have a cleaning solution or wipes ready and used regularly to keep your work place clean. Be sure soap is stocked in the bathrooms and doesn’t run out. It’s the little things.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR and HOW TO GET HELP:
*IF you have an employee that is sick FIRST have them self quarantine at home (see CDC guidelines on this at home)
*Understand that the most concerning symptoms are FEVER, shortness of breath, trouble breathing and cough. If you are worried about your employee and feel they need medical care first have them CALL their doctor. If they do not have a doctor, have them call our office and ask for our expedited intake track (phone call service) and we will see if we can connect your employee to evaluation, services and testing as indicated.
PREVENTION (chemical details informed by my chemical engineer husband):
*Hand washing – soap is the best option with 20 seconds of washing. Any soap will work, its the soap function (bubbles!) that work “antibacterial” not needed as this is a virus. Hand sanitizer is ok (if >70%), but it works best for killing bacteria but unfortunately, its antiviral effect is not as strong.
*Hard surfaces – diluted bleach solutions or wipes are the best. Bleach is highly effective and and cheap. Other disinfectants like hydrogen peroxide can work.
*Rest, fruits and veges, hydration, exercise
*Vitamin D & C, Zinc, N-Acetyl-Cysteine (an amino acid that improves your antioxidant glutathione) *don’t hold me to the FDA on these health claims. Anything that builds your HEALTH should help!
Resources:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-in-us.html
https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cdphe/2019-novel-coronavirus
