Corona pandemic: return to the workplace (office work)

General

• With any illness and / or throat-nose-ear complaints in particular: stay at home, you are allowed to go to the office after 14 days without any complaints (and no illness complaints of your family members either). 
• In the office: keep 1.5 m away from each other. 
• Workspace: up to 3 people in a room of at least 80 square meters. 
• Up to 10 people in a permanent workspace, provided that they retain 1.5 m. 
• Meetings: Ditto 
• The return to the workplace of employees who recovered from the Corona virus can create tension for colleagues. Pay attention to this, you can do so by informing and reassuring employees in advance. If necessary, call in the help of external professionals such as the Occupational Health Service Provider, Medisch Consult. 

Safety of the business premises

The virus cannot enter through normal skin, but it can enter the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, mouth and respiratory tract through small drops. These drops can only bridge a limited distance. There are indications that providing good ventilation can reduce the risk of contamination.

Therefore we recommend the following:

• If there is mechanical ventilation, set the ventilation setting higher during normal occupancy. With minimum occupancy, the normal ventilation setting is sufficient. 
• Let your ventilation system start earlier and finish later than usual (for example, two hours before and after working hours). 
• For indoor climate systems where air is recirculated, we advise you to contact your installer. He can check whether additional measures are needed to prevent any virus droplets from entering via recirculation. 
• If you ventilate your building in a natural way, we advise you to ventilate more frequently than usual. 

Use of toilets

We also want to draw attention to the use of toilets, in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in faecal particles via air. Inform your employees to close the toilet lid before flushing. In addition, ventilating the toilet room is also important.

Preventive measures against legionella contamination

NB: Many commercial properties are (partly) less used due to government measures. When hot water has been in the water pipe for a long time because taps are no longer flushed, there is a risk of legionella contamination. Keep your workplace safe by applying preventive measures against legionella.

Hygiene measures

Wearing mouth masks or gloves by personnel who are not trained in doing this, does not have a protective effect. There is even evidence that these protective products can lead to an increase of the spreading of the virus if not used properly. In addition, wearing gloves for a long time is harmful to the skin.

Inform employees about personal hygiene measures:

• Avoid touching the eyes, nose and mouth as much as possible. 
• Cough and sneeze into the inside of the elbow and use tissue paper, throw away immediately after use. 
• Make resources available for good hand hygiene: 
  • Wash hands regularly with soap and water and dry with paper towels. Draw attention to the RIVM washing instruction. 
  • Use hand alcohol if there is no hand washing facility. 
• Display announcements at the entrance, lunch areas and toilets. 
• Clean contact surfaces several times daily with regular cleaning products: handles, handrails, light buttons, elevator buttons, counters, tools, keyboards, computer mice, telephones, taps, soap holders, sinks, toilets, etc. 
• Pay attention when washing crockery and cutlery with soap and water. Preferably wash at a high temperature in the dishwasher. 

Social distancing

You must reduce the number of contacts and increase the distance between people (social distancing). Measures to apply social distancing are:

• Avoid contact where possible and do not shake hands. Limit meetings in time, frequency and numbers. 
• Work in different rooms of an office/a building. 
• Spread opening hours, the hours people work and when breaks are taken. 
• Limit travel movements. 
• Use the lift with a maximum of two people at the same time and encourage taking the stairs. 
• Events are not allowed yet, only without an audience or via videoconferencing. 

Medisch Consult

Occupational Health Service Provider