Health ministry guidelines for offices during the COVID-19 pandemic

Human to human transmission in COVID-19 can occur in one of three ways:

• Droplet transmission: Droplet transmission occurs when someone with the viral infection talks, coughs or sneezes, and droplets containing the virus enter a healthy person’s nose, mouth or eyes.
• Fomites: Things that a lot of people might touch have a higher chance of becoming contaminated with the virus. In the office setting, these could be lift buttons, handrails in the stairway, doorknobs, water faucets in the pantry and washrooms, coffee machine buttons, etc. Studies have shown that the virus can survive on these surfaces for hours.
• Sharing bodily fluids: This includes blood and saliva.

Seeing how COVID-19 spreads, Indian and international health authorities have advised some basic precautions that everyone should follow. Now, the health ministry has adapted these for the office setting. Here’s what the guidelines say:

• Each person must maintain a physical distance of at least one metre (three feet) from everyone else. (Read more: Social distancing benefits)
• Everyone in the office must wear a face cover or mask at all times.
• Everyone must wash hands properly with soap and water for 40-60 seconds or clean them with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer for at least 20 seconds, several times a day.
• Respiratory hygiene such as sneezing into a tissue and disposing of that tissue into a bin immediately must be followed by everyone. It’s also okay to sneeze or cough into the crook of one’s arm, or in other words, cover your face with your elbow.
• Each person should monitor their own health and report any illness asap.

Following these precautions in the workplace may necessitate a few changes. For example, the seating plan may have to be changed to put three feet of distance between employees at all times. Watercooler conversations may be different now, with everyone standing farther apart and speaking up to be heard through the masks. Conference rooms may not be filled to capacity for the foreseeable future. And most importantly, we will each have to monitor our own health for any signs of sickness—while many of us continued to work through slight fever and sore throat in the past, this should not be encouraged or tolerated by offices during the pandemic.

The most important thing in the coming days will be to stay vigilant. Keeping this in mind, the health ministry has issued these guidelines for offices:

• Employees should not go to work if they have flu-like symptoms. Instead, they should seek advice from health authorities. The symptoms to watch out for include:
  • Fever
  • Dry cough
  • Fatigue
  • Body ache
  • Sore throat
  • Diarrhoea
  • Loss of taste or smell
  • COVID toes (purplish rashes on the toes)
  • Shortness of breath
• Anyone suspected or confirmed to have COVID-19 must inform the office immediately.
• Offices have been asked to allow work from home, based on the containment zone activities allowed in their residential areas.
• The ministry has also said that the Department of Personnel and Training guidelines with respect to organizing meetings and coordinating visits to the office by people other than the employees should be followed strictly. Some of these guidelines are:
  • The entry of visitors into the office should be discouraged. When these visits are necessary, visitors should be screened before being allowed inside. This can be done with the help of thermal scanners at the entrance, wherever feasible.
  • As much as possible, meetings should be conducted virtually through video conferencing. Where it is necessary to meet people in person, any meeting with a large number of people should be broken up into smaller groups (so it's easier to follow physical distancing) or rescheduled if possible.
  • Non-essential official travel should be avoided.
  • Emails should be preferred over sending physical memos and files to other people’s desks or cabins, to prevent the spread of infection.
  • All offices have been guided to properly clean and sanitize surfaces (especially common use ones) frequently (more on this below).
  • There should be hand sanitizers at the entrance of the office and in the washrooms at all times.

According to the health ministry guidelines, in case someone gets flu-like symptoms despite taking these precautions, it is important to isolate that person and anyone who works closely with them in a separate section of the office. Next:

• They should be given masks to wear, and a doctor should check them for signs of COVID-19 in the office itself.
• If the person tests positive, public health experts should advise on how to do contact tracing effectively and disinfect the place properly.
• If the person who tests positive has mild symptoms of COVID-19, they may be put under home isolation—provided their home meets the required conditions for it. (Read more: Home-based care of COVID-19 patients)
• In case the person tests positive with moderate to severe symptoms of COVID-19, they should be moved to a designated COVID-19 facility.
• The local rapid response team should be called in for proper contact tracing.
• In the case of asymptomatic patients, offices may need to ramp up preparations and do contact tracing and testing on a wider scale.
• Close contacts of patients are required to monitor their health for 14 days. High-risk contacts are required to self-isolate and undergo testing as per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) protocols. Others who are low-risk can continue to work, while monitoring their health closely for 14 days. 
• In case of a COVID-19 confirmation, the entire office has to be disinfected properly.

When to close down office

Offices can reopen after disinfection in case there are just one or two confirmed cases of COVID-19—only the areas frequented by patients will have to be disinfected in this case. However, in case of a wider outbreak, the office or office complex has to be disinfected and closed for 48 hours as per the government guidelines.

The health ministry had previously issued guidelines for twice-daily cleaning of all offices. The health ministry has alluded to those guidelines again in its guidelines for the prevention of COVID in the workplace. Here’s a recap:

• If the surfaces look dirty, clean with soap and water before disinfecting. Start by cleaning the dirtiest areas first.
• Use 1% sodium hypochlorite or phenolic disinfectants to disinfect all areas, including entrance lobbies, corridors and staircases, escalators, elevators, security guard booths, office rooms, meeting rooms and cafeteria.
• Clean common use things like handrails, door handles, intercom systems, printers, scanners, photocopiers, and other office machines twice daily by mopping with a clean dusting cloth soaked in 1% sodium hypochlorite.
• Remember to wipe down table tops, chair handles, pens, diary files, keyboards, mouse, mouse pad, tea/coffee machines, etc., with disinfecting liquid at least twice a day.
• You can use 70% alcohol to clean metallic surfaces and surfaces which should not be cleaned with bleach.
• Offices must keep hand sanitizers at the entrance and in areas that are used a lot.
• If someone happens to cough or sneeze without following proper respiratory etiquette, the area around their seat should be cleaned with 1% sodium hypochlorite immediately. People who sit near this person should also vacate their seats until the area is disinfected.
• Cleaning equipment should be cleaned and disinfected after use, too.