Work continuity Proposal during

Pandemics
By,
Ahmed basil kalnad

Safer Effective Work

Solution During Covid Disaster
June 15, 2020

Overview
The research will gather resources from online sources provided by experts and academics,
through which it was known that there will be concerns among the employees returning to work
during pandemic situations. To address the main constraints to tackle to reduce the risk factor to
the employees, we try to find a solution based on the risk factors of covid, by understanding the
nature and spread factors of the virus, we also look for commonalities of pandemic practices by
organization to develop a long term strategy that can be rolled out during pandemics.

The results gained were the covid constraints which are critical to be addressed to ensure
workforce safety and the hierarchy of controls model which can be implemented for risk
assessment strategy for disaster recovery and procedure rollouts during pandemics. An idea to
implement engineering control like an enclosed UVC ventilation system in work areas is
suggested to efficiently provide ventilation and also destroy contagions before exiting the
ventilation system, along with administrative controls and PPE’s required to keep the workforce
safe.
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Goals
1. To Examine Covid and its effects on the workplace operations.

2. To Analyze and discover effective solutions for workplace operating procedures

during pandemic situations.

Background description:
During times like the current outbreaks it becomes an economic as well as a production disaster
for companies. The proposal will look into what Covid is and what are the best safety guidelines
currently existing for combating the issues at workplace standard operating procedures and
finally into the best possible measure workplace should have that can be implemented to any
business SOP’s.

This proposal is based on the CoVid 19 pandemic the world is facing. The research will examine
what covid is and how workplaces are affected based on literature found in the online research.
Due to the shortage in time, the paper will gather research material from online articles
predominantly and may involve academic resources for comparison.

Method:
The research was done in a narrative style and based on workplace quality and safety during
Covid 19 type of outbreaks for employees with literary resources gathered in the literary review
from online sources by experts and academics based on the subject at hand.

A qualitative analysis is conducted on the gathered material in the literature review which will
pinpoint the requirement constraints during a pandemic at work places and in general, which will
enable us to develop ideas regarding workplace practices.

Based on the narrative analysis we will pinpoint the effects that needs to be addressed during a
pandemic and formulate ideas that can counter these effects on the workforce, ideally creating a
safer scenario suggestion for employees to have the confidence and safety measures to get
back to work.
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Literature Review:

CoVid 19:

WHO considers COVID-19 a virus that belongs to a greater coronavirus group of family which
can infect humans displaying symptoms varying from common cold to symptoms of infections
like the MERS and SARS, the symptoms of which may have all or anyone of the signs like,
fever, dry cough, vertigo, breathing difficulty, muscle pain, diarrhoea and vomiting [1].

Spread risk and detection:

CoVid-19 can be spread through contact between humans and animals and people should
avoid contact from either and maintain 1 feet of distance from to be safe from infection in case
they encounter an infected, as the main cause is spread through droplets from an infected
individual [2]. Covid-19 can survive on some surfaces for days [3]. Research has found that
covid can survive on different surfaces ranging from 2 hours to 5 days depending on the surface
type, of which metal and wood seems to hold the virus for 5 days [4].

To avoid exposure, washing hands, avoiding close contact, covering coughs and sneezes and
cleaning are advised, although they seem to suggest that people with breathing problems
should avoid masks as the masks, red cross also suggests disinfecting surfaces daily during the
pandemic to avoid infection [5].

The FDA recognizes that there are two types of tests for the CoVid-19; the genetic test,
considered to be the best for of test in detecting active CoVid cases in its initial stages and the
antibodies test which cannot be used to detect the virus in its early stages with the detection
only possible after days or weeks of infection and deemed unreliable against the genetic test [6].

Spread control of the virus:

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Statistics show that an increase in CoVid testing ratio can reduce the risk of an outbreak
event as in the case of South Korea, a country that managed to control the rate of outbreak
in a matter of 5 months [7].

The Success of South Korea in dealing with CoVid-19 came from their quick response in laying
down practices in procuring and producing about 100000 kits a day, nearly a million kits a week.
Testing frequency was key in flattening the curve for South Korea as the 600 test centers rolled
out allowed the authorities to closely monitor the spread of the virus in the country enabling
them to treat and develop preventive measures, which was key in reducing the spread of the
virus [8].

Research suggests disinfection of workplace assets like countertops, tables, doorknobs, toilets,
electrical equipment and computer components are a must to prevent covid from infecting the
employees, solutions that stay for 24 hours are available like bleach solution that can be
sprayed and left for a minute to dry [4].

Employee concerns during pandemic:

Research carried out by the firm Blind on the fear levels of employees who are concerned about
going to work, depicting that of the surveyed population of 6000 employees from about a 1000
companies 70.1 percent were unsure about going to work due to the pandemic [11].

The fear among the employees returning to work are concerns over undetected carriers of the
virus who show no symptoms raising the risk of infections. The need for social distancing
policies and workplace cleanliness and cleanliness training is a great need in organizations [12].

Concerns will rise as due to the reduced resiliency of the body’s immunity as Covid-19 has been
known to cause considerable severity in illness among the age categories 60 to 80 and above
patients [9]. It has been also observed recently that people in their 40s have experienced severe
illness too and even death according to a recent data by the United States [10].

Companies will be prompted to look for solutions either by coming up with ideas themselves or
by expecting the government to bring about a common solution for working during the
pandemic, but even so, the fact remains that employees need to be reassured of their safety by
the companies to manage the fear to a state where they are comfortable to come to work, this
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can come only when there is a reassurance of efforts that are being carried out to keep the
workplace safe [13].

Workplace safety practices:

During pandemics companies can implement work practice controls and engineering controls,
these controls were implemented during the influenza epidemic and studied by health
organizations like OSHA. Work practice controls would be to provide resources and work
environment that promotes personal hygiene, providing training on pandemic risk factors and
compliance procedures and also the development of policies in reducing contact between
stakeholders of the organization. Engineering controls on the other hand would be installing
plastic barriers as sneeze guards and installing drive-thru windows for customers or any
structural engineering done in effort to improve the safety of the employees, these efforts
contribute in preventing spread, which is why the Personal Protective Equipments like the
surgical masks offer good protection from spread of the virus from liquid droplets while engaging
with people and in the case of essential personnel exposed to external contacts, it is advisable
to provide portable hand sanitizers for their safety [14].

When work resumes the employees should be advised on eliminating face to face contact
situations, and if it is not avoidable then engineering controls are necessary like physical
barriers or reengineering the workplace for appropriate safety measures [15].

To ensure proper business continuity plans, an effective risk assessment study is to be done in
an effort to implement public health and occupational safety measures with the help of
occupational health services, which can aid in developing mitigation and prevention of the
disease during a pandemic like the Covid-19 [16].

Hierarchy of controls:

A step based risk assessment strategy has to be implemented in sequential stages, namely
conventional capacity that looks into measuring the implementation needs of engineering, PPE
and administrative controls; the next stage being contingency capacity measures used during
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perceived PPE shortages; the final stage being the crisis capacity, a more immediate
response plan in times of unforeseen requirements arising [17].

The hierarchy of controls model for hazard prevention is the best possible model to Covid -19
safety [18]. This model considers a step by step assessment system that assesses the situation
and then takes action based on the best available resources and identifies the needs of
implementation, the model begins by assessing steps being Elimination, Substitution,
Engineering controls, Administrative controls, PPE respectively [19].

Engineering controls:

Engineering controls come third in the hierarchy of controls after elimination and substitution, as
the controls have shown to have provided safety measures in helping either in eliminating
exposure or reducing chances of spread significantly [23].

In china, public buses are being sterilized by UVC rays, which are known to destroy
coronaviruses, although direct contact on human may be harmful, people are using UVC
emitting robots to clean floors in hospitals too and is considered the front line in fighting CoVid -
19 in china due its capacity in destroying genetic materials of microorganisms , so far as to the
UV equipment suppliers reporting a record number of sales in a span of few months [22].

Common engineering control efforts are Improved ventilation, physical barriers and worker
hygiene during CoVid-19 pandemic [16]. Implementing proper ventilation intervention is known
best practice to reduce the risk of airborne contagion infection [24].

Administrative controls:

Administrative controls are procedures and policies laid out by organizations that can reduce the
risk of hazards to an individual [25]. Some of the controls under this step are managed
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procedures and policies of work continuity, respiratory hygiene training, enforced personal
and workplace hygiene, vaccination and general monitoring and training of the workforce
[26].

Keeping the workplace clean inhibits the spread of communicable diseases. Advising
employees to follow certain guidelines like, washing hands for 20 seconds, using a tissue to
cough on with disposal practices and providing training for employees in the use of disinfectant
wipes and using cleaning agents meant for surface cleaning [27].

Personal Protective Equipment:

Research suggests that the use of FFP2, FFP3 and N95 are considered to be the safest option
when compared to the type-IIR surgical masks which have a risk reduction estimate of 80%.
FFP2, FFP3 and N95 are safer because they are made up of a web of polypropylene
microfibers and electrostatic charge of which FFP3 and N95 have a 94% to 99% exposure risk
reduction estimate, but these masks are mandatory if the person within 2 meter distance of a
CoVid-19 patient, although guidelines state 1 meter; 2 meter is the precautionary distance to be
maintained from an infected [21]; But the biggest mistake a company could make is solely
relying on PPE instead of following the step based hierarchy of controls model during a
hazardous situation [20].

Discussion and Analysis:

CoVid-19 is widely spread by close contact and at a possible non-contact distance for about 1
feet and the virus symptom mainly is fever like any other viruses. The virus also has been
known to stay on surfaces depending on the type of surface from 2 hours to 5 days and wood
and metal seems to hold the virus for about 5 days and if infected the detection can be
conducted only by a genetic test that can be used to detect the viruses in early stages . Due to
the spread and pandemic factors mentioned, there has to be a disinfection programme within
the company to avoid spread as most of the materials in the companies will consist of wood and
metal and a provision of a weekly testing system during peak pandemic stage for the employees
in association with the government health organization of the country.
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The resolution South Korea faced and how it was handled by the government at the initial
outbreak in the country was praised by the world, by being ready and responsive to the
outbreak, the south Korean government's implementation of test centers to test population
across the country allowed them to monitor the infection spread rates, which was key in their
low infection rate, further highlighting the need for testing. The evidence that disinfection of
surfaces with the right disinfecting agent not only shows the need for the disinfection
programme, but also the need to select the right kind of disinfectant to last a single working day.

During pandemic, employee concerns are prone to have the fear of infection from carriers or
asymptomatic infected groups that may not show any symptoms. Risk assessments are key in
assessing, work practice controls and engineering controls are needed to ensure and protect
the workforce from Covid, as these implementations have shown good results during the
influenza pandemic earlier. Therefore, the company will have to create a risk assessment plan
based on engineering controls and administrative controls for the work environment.

The OSHA has released a model called the hierarchy of controls which OSHA states is a step
based guidance model designed to address hazardous and pandemic incidents. There are three
stages of the pandemic assessment, the conventional stage, the contingency stage and crisis
capacity stage of assessment. As the hierarchy of controls model can be executed in all three
stages for assessment, if we look at the models, elimination, Substitution, engineering controls
and administrative controls and PPE can be a set step by step guideline for the three situational
stages of pandemic the conventional where the outbreak has the necessities for control, the
contingency stage where, outbreaks need more resources for control and crisis stage, a
improvisation in times of non-availability of resources to fight the pandemic. Therefore, to lay
down disaster recovery plans hierarchy of controls model by OSHA is a good approach.

As per the reports from china, their efforts in engineering controls by using UV rays to cleanse
buses when parked is a very good example of the reason engineering controls come third in the
hierarchy of controls before administrative controls and UVC rays have been known to destroy
microorganisms in tests, although UV rays may help destroy airborne contagions, the exposure
may be most likely dangerous for humans and since airborne contagions are very likely to
spread faster making the requirement of ventilation system implementations a very needed
approach. Therefore, we can use the UV rays if the exposures to humans are contained in
the used areas and ventilations are a must to clear any possible contagions that may have
been exposed to the work environment.
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Although Provision of PPE like N95 masks are good solution for reducing exposure risk to
about 99% during pandemics, we should not depend solely on PPE, the administrative
controls are also an important tool in preventive measures during pandemics, helping in and
promoting workplace cleanliness practices which have shown to reduce the spread of
contagions. The organization should consider keeping the cleaning surfaces with good cleaning
agents that are reliable as contagions like the CoVid can stay on surfaces for a long time as
mentioned before. Therefore, while implementing PPE the organization must have
administration controls in place to counter pandemics.

Limitations and further research:

The research into the subject was narrative and carried out without statistical data; more efforts
can be put into data analysis and data gathering.

Further research is needed on efficient geographical locations and total cost involved in
procurement of PPE materials and engineering control materials should be carried out to
effectively benefit from the study. A look into PPE usage during pandemics based on guidelines
of health authorities and the comparison of existing and possible pandemic prevention
technologies can also be carried out to be prepared for the next pandemic.

Result and suggestions:

From what we have analyzed we understand that the following are the requirements the
implementation should meet to protect the workforce of the organization during pandemics,

- We should have Assessment systems in place to keep people safe from Covid-19
- Engineering controls will provide the best possible safety measures now and in future.
- Administrative controls can ensure workforce conformity to safety Procedures
- Protective wear for employees can ensure safety from external exposure.

Considering the requirements mentioned before,, the organization has to develop an

assessment system and implement resources and procedures that will complement the
requirements mentioned above.

Assessment System:
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As people are entering the work environment the assessment should start from engineering
controls to PPE solutions for identifying existing resources and then perform a needs analysis
on resources required.

Below mentioned are solutions based on three areas of the hierarchy of controls, engineering
controls, administrative controls and Personal Protective equipment controls which are derived
from what measures are best needed in an organization to protect the workforce from infection
during pandemic,

Engineering Controls:

- A med bay with Pandemic essentials and testing kits required for immediate
medical response of affected people and a quarantine ready facility in an
outbreak situation.
- Organization will need a ventilation system with enclosed UVC light
filtering within the ducting in key air vent entry and exit positions that
could kill the viruses without harming work personnel.
- Dust and waterproofed Mass temperature scanner systems at key entry zones to
identify affected individuals which will alert the med bay if rise in temperature
detected.

Administrative controls:
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- Workforce safety induction through daily video induction on procedures
during first login by a user to the company system and virtual team huddle
held by managers and supervisors on CoVid safety before commencement of
work.
- Training programme for the managers and supervisors by health professionals to
monitor the conformity of pandemic procedures in place.
- Providing virtual dashboards updates on pandemic contagion safety regarding
pandemic and placing signage on workplace cleanliness at key noticeable areas.
- Disinfection program which should finish prior to 1 hour before the start of the
working hours daily.

Personal Protective Equipment:

- N95 masks for employees should be readily available and should be mandatory
for the employees.
- Hand gloves are a must for employees at work premises.
- Protective Eye - wear for employees is also a must for employees.
- Hand sanitizers at entry and exit points are a necessity and employees are to
use them during entry.

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2020
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5. COVID-19: Safety Tips for You, American red cross 2020
6. 2 types of testing look for COVID-19 infections new and old Matthew Perrone
2020
7. Why countries should start weekly covid-19 testing for key workers, Micheal Le
Page 2020
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8. South Korea conquered coronavirus without a lockdown: a model to follow?,
Tommy Hilton 2020
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Toby Graham 2020
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Influenza, Govt. of Alberta 2009
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