Since we are in the middle of Coronavirus (Covid-19) epidemic crisis. We thought if would be useful to make the content published by the World Health Organization more accessible. We transcribed one of WHO's video about Coronavirus in the workplace environnement because we think that it is important that those kind of informations are wildly spread and accessible to anybody.
Hello, everyone. From the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva. My name is Alexandra KUNZMANOVIC, and it's my pleasure to have with us today Dr Rosamund Lewis, who will actually respond your questions on COVID-19 in workplace. So we are saying that WHO is saying that responding to COVID-19 outbreak, it's not job just for health sector. So we are working with different industries, representatives and different sectors to respond to the outbreak. And please feel free to ask your questions through the comments section here on Facebook or to hashtag us W.H.O on Twitter on how you can protect if your employer, how to protect your employees from COVID-19 or if your employee. Any other interest you have on this subject, please ask your questions. Before we received questions from from viewers.
Would you tell us what is the role that employers can play in the COVID-19 response?
Employers can play a very important role in preparing for or responding to any situation where people are concerned about coronavirus disease COVID-19. That is both whether there's a case in your community or not. Even if people are just concerned about it.
Thank you very much. Would you remind our viewers how COVID-19 spreads COVID-19 is what we call a respiratory infection, which means it can be spread by coughing the droplets that you spray a little bit. When you talk or when you cough or when you sneeze. So that does not travel long distances, but it does travel about this far to the person next to you. And so it's really important for people to keep a distance of about a metre or so, three, three, four feet from someone who's coughing or sneezing, because that is how you can catch these infections.
Thank you, Rosamund. So what are the simple public health actions that employers can put in place to put that day? Employees ordered business partners.
What are the simple public health actions that employers can put in place to put that day? Sure. Alexandra So in the first instance, the public health actions that the employer can put in place are the same as for everyone else. The number one action is hand-washing. This can be done with soap and water and it can be done with hand sanitizers. alcohol-based hand rubs. To do that as often as possible. Certainly before eating, before or after. And maybe door handles or elevator buttons. Things that are touched frequently by other people, especially during the winter months in the northern hemisphere or likewise in other parts of the world.
It is from these frequently touched places that people can acquire viral infections. So it's really important to wash your hands. But equally important not to touch your face afterwards. I mean before when your hands may be dirty. So what people don't realize how often we touch our faces, our nose, our eyes. And so it's really important to just try and remember to control that impulse. Keep your hands clean. Don't touch your eyes, nose or your face or your mouth and keep a distance from anyone who is coughing or sneezing.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Are there any actions that employers should do if COVID-19 arrived in their communities?
The official WHO's video about Corona Virus (COVID-19) in the workplace
Are there any actions that employers should do if COVID-19 arrived in their communities? Absolutely, because this is an infection that can infect almost anyone. There's some things that are important to note. One is that still, most people who acquire this infection actually have a very mild illness. And that's just to reassure you that it can be very serious in some people. But most people have a mild case. So for those where it is serious, it tends to be the older, older folks. As we get older, we are more vulnerable to all kinds of infections and this is no exception.
So employers can provide information to employees through a whole range of means. So one is posters that you can put up in your workplace, communication messages through email. This kind of information medium through social media. And also what's really helpful is to have perhaps a talk in your workplace depending on the size of your workplace, either from your occupational health and safety support office or from your staff health services. If you're Denis's small and you don't have that kind of support, you can reach out to a local health care provider or to your local public health unit.
There are many professionals in the community who probably happy to help with this. Thank you very much. So once again, just a reminder for everyone today, we are talking about COVID-19, in workplace. So feel free to ask your questions to our expert, Dr. Rosamund Lewis. Can you also explain to our viewers, please, what if someone needs to go on the business trip? What are the actions to take or what is the information they need to they need to know?
What if someone needs to go on the business trip? Absolutely. So there are things. You can do it, first of all. What we're saying is that it's you need to assess the risk. So is this business trip necessary? What is the location has COVID-19 been reported there? Is it possible to hold this meeting through any other means, whether it be video conferences or teleconferences? If the person needs to go, then there a means to protect the traveler by preparing them before the trip. During the trip.
And when they come back. So before the trip, you want to make sure that they have the maximum amount of information available. The latest information available on work COVID-19 is being reported. Of course, busy places like airports or train stations. They can, of course, pose a slightly higher risk. So it's really all about managing that risk, being prepared, being aware. And then when you're in a destination, make sure to follow the requirements or the recommendations of the local authorities.
That can be public health authorities. They can be security police. But when you're somewhere where a situation may evolve very quickly, be aware that you may need to follow the instructions of the local authorities. It's not necessary to wear a mask. I'm sure many of you will be interested in that. The mask is really mostly helpful for people who are already coughing because it protects other people from the results of that cough. Most of the masks that are that are out there right now.
The thin surgical masks, they don't really protect directly. And it may be that we are using too many masks because we really need them after the health workers and nurses and doctors were treating people in hospital. So we recommend that you use a mask if you're already sick or if you're looking after someone who's sick. But otherwise, we're not recommending masks in the general sense. Thank you very much. We also, meanwhile, received a question on masks, if you can just clarify as well.
Not when traveling, but in the workplace that may be community is affected by COVID-19. Do you still recommend that employees should all wear masks or not?
Now, remember, that COVID-19 is one type of infectious virus. There are others. There are common cold viruses. We could name a few. There's the flu season. These are all infections that spread in a similar way through the mechanisms that we've already talked about. So it's important if someone does actually have symptoms, whether they have a cough or fever or runny nose, that ideally they would just stay home if they're not that sick. You can offer that they tell a work from home.
Ideally, they would not be in the workplace where they can infect others if they are in the workplace. Then again, if someone is actually having these kind of respiratory symptoms, I would suggest that that person who's not well is the one who's wearing the mask. Not everyone else. And there's another reason for that is that we've seen that when people wear masks, it's unusual, it's uncomfortable. It's not something they're used to. And in fact, you may be ending up touching your face more often than without wearing one.
So you maybe want to adjust it. And then, of course, by the time your your mask may become damp. In fact, you can that mask can spread the infection even more easily, especially if it's not put on properly removed, properly disposed of, properly in a closed bin. So we don't want to cause greater risk by everyone wearing masks for a long period of time. So if you are going to use one, then please do check.
What is the right way to wear a mask and the right way to dispose of it? What is the right way to wear it and the right way to dispose of it?
Thank you very much. This was really great explanation. We are getting more and more questions. And here's one from Laura Up a Tree C.l.A Pest Menesses. Are there any special recommendations for employees from airports? Well, that's a very good question. So an airport is a workplace like any other. And again, it's about risk. So what is the risk in your workplace? What is happening in your community? And clearly, an airport or train station may be a place where more people are passing.
Now, if you're just passing someone in, you know, if it's not that crowded or you're not that close, just passing someone in a shopping mall or in an airport is not something that's going to increase your risk. But if you are at the frontlines and you're actually screening passengers who are coming, you are approaching them, you are taking their temperature perhaps, or you're asking questions. And you may be just less than a meter of hopefully not less than a meter.
You want to be mindful that you may wish to wear a mask in that situation if you think you're coming in contact with people who you are screening, especially if it's likely that the contact may be reduced to less than three feet.
Thank you very much. We have a next question from estimate in Luna Vargas from the Dominican Republic. What's the best way to practice prevention in a call center setting where headsets are shared and facilities are closed and areas recycled? So, oh, another very great question. So, Ines, in a setting where you may be constantly touching surfaces, we didn't talk a lot about surfaces yet. So when somebody coughs or sneezes, the droplets may drop on whatever's in front of you, whether it.
Your desk at table, a telephone, and so in those circumstances where you are likely to be touching surfaces, especially if they've been touched by others, that you want to do everything in your workplace to keep those surfaces clean. So regular disinfected with just ordinary kitchen disinfectants. Chlorine, that sort of thing. Really simple things. But doing it regularly is the important thing. So making sure that your your desk and surface area is clean. If you're coming into a workspace, a booth, maybe that somebody else has been using.
You want to be careful. You don't want to be too worried, but you want to be careful and feel free to use wipes or regular disinfectants to clean the surface.
Thank you. There comes question from Sergio Sergio Lopez Lara. What is the recommended frequency for wiping surfaces with disinfectants again?
What is the recommended frequency for wiping surfaces with disinfectants again? There may not be an absolute answer to that. It may be. Is it your workspace? Maybe you do it at the frequency that you're comfortable with. Once a day, twice a day, once every two or three days. But if you're sharing that workspace with other people, then how frequent how frequently is that workspace exchanged? And have you seen anyone in the vicinity coughing or sneezing? You don't necessarily want to wait for that. But if it's if it's a heavily trafficked workspace, then you might want to do it more often, maybe several times a day.
Thank you very much. Here's where. Very good. Next question. What about library that people are borrowing books.
So books are a type of surface, which, first of all, if they're on the shelf when they're there for several days or weeks or months, then most of them are not likely to be infected in any way. Secondly, they won't also be infected if there's no COVID-19 in your community. So unless there's COVID 19 in your community, it's not something you need to worry about at all. Finally, books tend to have if it's more of a porous surface, it's possible that the virus doesn't survive as long on that surface.
If you are really concerned, you can wear gloves. If you're dealing with materials that you feel are being touched often by others, you could wear a pair of gloves. But again, be very careful when you remove those gloves. First of all, don't touch your face with the gloves and secondly, remove those gloves carefully and burn them in a closed bent so that you're not re-infected yourself from the surface of the gloves. But in most cases, you wouldn't need to worry about this.
There's still relatively few cases around the world. We are seeing outbreaks. We're seeing outbreaks in specific countries and we're seeing a sporadic case here and there. For the vast majority of you watching us right now, it's not something you should worry about. Thank you very much. We go on the next question from a viewer on Twitter who says that he works with clients with poor respiratory hygiene. So his question is what? What should he do? He or she do with the clients?
Yes. While it would be helpful to know what what why that person has, what type of client. So I don't have the answer to that question. But depending on the type of client, if it's someone who maybe is ill or coughing and you have no choice but to be in very close proximity to them, you may want to share with them the fact that you don't feel like shaking hands because you're concerned about what's happening right now. But don't be too worried.
Just say that right now you're not shaking hands with anyone. Or you might say that you appreciate if we just keep a distance of a meter or so or you may wish to place your client across the table from you and you may wish to to limit the time that you're with them to a shorter period of time. And really, as I said before, for most people, this is not a concern. But definitely there are other viruses that can be transmitted in this way.
So that practice, those practices are always, always good. You can ask them to cough into their sleeve. We haven't talked about that yet either. That when people are coughing or sneezing, ask them to do this. You do not want to cough into your own hands and then go and shake someone else's hands. That is a no no. You really have to protect others from your own conferences and you can politely ask others to do the same.
So let's just summarize here. What are the main ways of protecting ourselves and others from getting sick? What hand-washing? And so whether the other other tips you add up, right? So absolutely hand-washing. Absolutely. Keeping your hands away from your face. You may use a Kleenex if you're not comfortable with it with the elbow. But if you do that, then the Kleenex immediately. Don't leave it lying around. Keep your surfaces tidy and clean them regularly with disinfectant.
These are many ways in which you can you can protect yourself and for the workplace specifically. Really, if you are an employer and you're watching this, you should consider what are the risks in your office? What is the traffic in your office? What are the offices like? Are they cubicles? Are they closed offices? If it's an office, it could be a different type of workplace altogether and then manage the risk accordingly by informing your staff and your clients.
Of course. Yes. Of these simple measures that really. Protect all of us. Of assessing the risk that you have when people are traveling for business or even traveling for family reasons, they want to be aware before they travel, when they travel. And also when they come back, they want to be aware of any risk they may have been exposed to and go and discuss it with your staff, health or occupational health services. And then you want to also consider maybe having a preparedness plan or a business continuity plan.
Because if COVID does arrive in your community, you may be now listening to your health. Authorities say, OK, we need to maximize the number of people that are staying home for whatever reason or you can't travel in and out of a location. Again, this has not happened in very many places, but it would be good idea to start working on a business continuity plan so that you can have policies in place who can tell a work, when should they tell the work and various things like that.
Do do all people need to be in at the same time? Can can the work be spaced out? And it may depend if it's if it's a manufacturer, it's a different situation. But again, lessening the number of people that are coming and going, especially in a circumstance like that, can be very helpful to reduce the risk for your office and your company. Thank you very much. I think we have a very relevant question coming from Reuter Avenadio Boolarra.
He says that a lot of employees are commuters and it worries them, especially as they don't know who they encounter with while their commutes. And then the question is, should companies activate remote working if available instead of wait for a worst outbreak? So this should quite different questions there, because we just talked about remote working on dress that one first. So the remote working, it's up it's up to the company policy. You need to know what is the comfort level in your company.
But if it's something that you put in place ahead of receiving COVID-19 or another infectious disease in your community, then it's something that you can practice. You can work on and people get used to it. Managers especially can get used to having their employees working from a distance. You can find doing those policies so that when you do have to implement them, if that becomes the case, then you're actually more comfortable doing so. So practicing that and having policies in place in advance of any emergency is actually a really good thing.
Then the second question was about public transport. So for public transport, it's a concerning question because you are there on a bus or train and do you feel that you're crowded in? But the same rules apply if you're touching the pole. Of course, we don't want you to fall over and have an accident. So by all means, make sure first that you're safe and secure. So hold on tight, but then don't put that hand to your face.
Keep it by your side until you get home and wash your hands. Or you can have a little bottle of sanitizer or you can have wipes in your pocket. And if you feel that you've exposed yourself to an hygienic or frequently touched environment, then you can deal with that straight away. So that's a good plan. And then in terms of crowding, that's up to you as an individual to decide, are you getting on that bus or you're not getting on that bus.
But of course, if you are on the bus, make sure that you protect your own cough with a tissue or with your own elbow and protect the others around you. And just try not to be close to someone who is coughing or Asam quietly to do the same, to protect others by coughing into their elbow. Thank you very much. Here comes in the next question. What's your advice for employees who have business meetings in affected countries? So this is a very good question.
Whether to plan a meeting or not is an important question. So the first question, of course, for the employer is how important is this meeting? Does it need to go ahead? The second thing is, how can this meeting be held in a way which reduces risk? Because, remember, we're just managing the risk. And the risk may be very close to zero. But it's never zero. So how do we manage that risk? You can manage it by having some people telework video conference and you can manage it by having a webinar if you're going to have it by having a meeting in your premises.
It depends on the size of the meeting and how many people are attending. A really good practice is simply to make make sure everyone knows where the washrooms are. Make the dispensers of the hand sanitizers available at strategic locations. You could have your staff health services come in and give a two minute talk at the beginning of the meeting to say that you're all aware that there's there's a situation in your environment. And these are these are the practices that we're going to be put in place during the meeting so that everyone is protected.
And then, of course, the important thing is part of your preparedness plan should be to know who to call. Should you have any concern what to say when you call? So it's good to plan this in advance. If you're having a meeting, by all means, go ahead, contact your public health authority or your health services or your health care provider in advance to say, here's what we're doing, you know? What advice would you have for us?
Or maybe you can just find it on their website. What advice would you have for us if if we have a situation and we need to call you if you do have a situation? Has that question come up yet? No, not yet. If you do have a situation and someone in your workplace is unwell and they're coughing and sneezing and you don't really know where they've come from or you're. You know where they've come from and your concern. Just make sure that part of your plan is to have a location where you can put them.
It can be apart from the others. It could be in someone's office. It could be a nursing station. It could be a location where just so that managing risk, remember, is also managing the perception of risk. So you're not just managing the actual risk. You're managing how people feel, how they react, what they think. And so your best move is just to have a place where you can ask someone to sit quietly, depending on how ill they are, and know how to handle that situation while everybody else just goes on with their business.
I'm taking a message here that actually employers have an important role as well, but in communicating with their employees, the risks. Right. Thank you. We have a next question. What is your advice for social workers who are exposed in poor communities? Someone who is working in a poor community may be exposed to a different type of environment. But basically, it's the same situation. Whenever you're working with someone, if you feel that there's a situation that is evolving, that you need to call someone you know in advance where you're going to call or what you're going to do, if I think the emergency services certainly will be fully trained, paramedics and emergency vehicles will be fully trained as to know what to do.
But most of the time, there's no reason to suspect that there's any higher risk in a poor community than any other community. Everyone, it can be equally affected. And the vast majority people right now are not at risk at all. So it's the basic common practices of protecting yourself and helping to protect other people so that you're not coughing on them and they're not coughing on you. And that would be the number one thing. Again, hands, don't touch your face.
Keep them clean and you can protect yourself and the people you're working with, whatever community you're in. There is a question as well. How are cleaning working workers being trained to properly clean? And that does, in fact, surfaces in the event of a broader outbreak. So that's an important thing you need to consider in your preparedness plan. And in fact, it should be a discussion that you're having already with your cleaning services as to how are they actually doing it right now?
Are they doing a good job cleaning surfaces? I know you have concerns. Let them actually just describe to you what they're already doing and then have a conversation with them because after all, they're the professionals. And so they should be able to advise you as to what what they think they can do differently if they need to wrap things up or just have a conversation so that you actually know. Because the the biggest source of fear is the unknown. And if you don't know what you're cleaning services are doing, then it's a good time to ask them.
Thank you very much. We're getting several questions on whether about James. There everybody is touching everything. When that during that training. So one of the things about this disease that I feel that it's important to share with you is that what we have learned is that when people are becoming ill with and I'm going to talk about Cauvin 19 right now. I mean, there are different infectious diseases out there, as we've already mentioned several times. But for Cauvin 19, what we've learned is that the onset, the beginning of the illness can be very mild.
It can be a low grade fever. It can be a dry cough, a slight cough. And so when people are if someone is becoming ill with this, it can be quite mild to begin with. And in fact, they can be out and about. They can look well to other people. They may take medication to make themselves feel better and they may continue going about their business. So this is something specific that we've learned about this illness that people can have mild symptoms and transmit.
So the important thing is not to worry overmuch about this, but to realize that even if someone is only mildly unwell, they could still spread it. If they have it, of course, if they don't have it, they can't spread it. But if they have it, this is situation. So it is a possibility. There is a chance that somebody could still be well enough to go to the gym and so on. Again, what is the situation in your community?
Has anything been reported in your community? And number two, standard practices. If you're working at a gym, that's fantastic. It's great for your health. Keep it up. Just keep your hands clean and don't touch your face when you're working with the gym, go straight to the locker rooms afterwards and clean up and then you'll be fine. Thank you very much. We have question coming on. What about situations inside the plane? Also, flight attendants and passengers.
Are there any special recommendations? So there are special recommendations that are already online on the WHO Web site, which is W W W dot W.H.O., dot I.N.T.. So there this work is being done not alone by WHO, but in conjunction with the International Air Transport Association and other industry leaders who are already making information available to specific countries of workers. And this is the airline industry is obviously one of them. So the airlines will all have their methods that they're putting in place to protect their help, their workers, as well as.
Thank you very much. Rahul Pradhat is asking Does good air circulation reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission in a workplace? If yes, with open, would those be better or use of AC? It's a good question. We don't think at the moment that COVID-19, is being transmitted through ventilation system. That doesn't seem to be the main driver of the outbreaks. The outbreaks are being driven primarily by person to person, direct person to person transmission through respiratory droplets.
So ventilating an open space is always a good idea. It's always a good idea to have fresh air coming in. Probably open windows are just fine. There's no need to have air conditioning on specifically. And again, the same measures apply.
Thank you very much. Can infected Jenny WEBER is asking can infected person spread the disease when they are touching items around us? For example, a credit card machine at our local store or when they're checking out.
So the concern about the spread from the virus on surfaces is is a legitimate concern. And it's it's what everybody's worried about. Again, things that are frequently touched could hypothetically be a source of concern. Right now, the virus, what we know about it, which remember this didn't exist eight weeks ago. So we're learning a lot and we're learning fast and we're sharing everything we're learning with you. But sometimes we may say we just don't know. So at the moment, what we know from a study and from comparison with other corona viruses, because there are other corona viruses out there, not just this one, is that this virus can survive on surfaces for a few minutes, a few hours or in certain circumstances, even up to a few days.
This is not to worry you, but just to remind you that it is hypothetically possible. We are not seeing a huge amount of transmission through that route as spread. I should say through that route at the moment. But again, don't be afraid. Go about your business as long as you wash your hands and don't touch your face. You will not be transferring anything from the surfaces around you to your orifices, but your mouth, your nose, your eyes.
This is what you don't want to do. You don't want to transfer anything from a frequently touch surface to your face. So the main messages are if you're touching surfaces, just wash your hands afterwards and keep your hands away from your face. Thank you very much. The next question comes from Mario Uera. Whether the measures someone can take if he or she works in a church. A church is indeed a workplace like any other. And if you're working in a church, it would be the same.
So you have areas in your workplace which may be frequently touched by by the community, by other workers, and you want to know what those are and you want to
