What to Do If Someone Shows Symptoms of COVID in Your Office

As this is being written, in early August 2020, it appears we are now entering a new and very unsettling time. Here in Illinois, which made remarkable progress in containing the virus earlier this summer, cases are going up at an alarming rate in certain parts of the state.

Because of this, building owners and managers that thought the worst was behind them and were primarily focused on opening their business doors and welcoming back building users, are now grappling with an unexpected issue: with COVID cases on the rise, what if someone in the office shows signs of the illness?

Among the suggestions we have are the following:

Isolate: Separate the worker from others in the building.

Test: Have the person tested for COVID. Remember, this person is just showing symptoms. Many of the early signs of COVID are like other viruses, even the common cold.

Remove: If the worker has tested positive, they must be removed from the building until they are well.

Inform: This is public information. Staff in contact with this person must be informed of the situation. Health officials recommend that in many cases, these workers' self-quarantine for 14 days.

Trace: The person testing positive should be asked who he or she has been in contact with in the past 24 hours. Those persons should be contacted and asked to take a coronavirus test. If they prove positive, they need to self-quarantine. For those that test negative, it is now recommended that they be tested again in about 14 days.

Face-to-Face: While we mentioned self-quarantining may be necessary, just because someone has been in the same room where this person worked, does not mean they have been exposed to the virus. Usually, it takes 15 minutes of close interaction – which usually means conversation – with the infected person or at least two hours in proximity with this person for concerns to mount.

Clean: The immediate and surrounding area where this person has been working must be detail cleaned. After cleaning, those same areas must be disinfected using an electrostatic sprayer. 

Review: Building owners and managers should re-evaluate the COVID "risk rate" in their facility. It would include such items as the following:

·      How closely are people working together? 

·      Should more people work at home, or should hours be staggered, so there are fewer people in the building at one time? 

·      Are all staffers wearing masks throughout the day?

·      Are food service areas providing adequate separation between people?

·      How do teams get together? In conference rooms? Instead of physically meeting, Zoom meetings and discussions may be necessary, even when workers are in the same building.

No review is complete unless the cleaning, disinfecting, and maintenance of the facility has also been examined. Review with your cleaning contractor all steps now being taken to clean the facility. Also, make sure cleaning tools are being used correctly. For instance, cleaning cloths must be changed much more frequently as should mops and floor cleaning solutions.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says disinfecting is not always necessary, and that effective cleaning should be enough in most cleaning situations, in some cases disinfecting of certain surfaces may actually need to be increased.

In unfortunate ways, COVID has been one of the best things to happen to the professional cleaning industry. The value of thorough and effective cleaning, and how it keeps people healthy, has never been so clear.

However, thorough, and effective cleaning is a learning process. That is why we have developed ongoing training programs with our custodial workers, reviewing the latest and most advanced cleaning techniques and methods, specifically designed to contain this virus and keep building users safe and healthy.

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