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I am interested to hear others insights to the following: - Outside WHO / PHE advice, I am interested to know what, if any, measures or restrictions are being considered or taken for corporate visitors / employees coming in to the office from impacted areas i.e. China and wider countries on WHO lists or indeed Italy? Or is it all business as usual?
- Has anyone developed any plans to manage a situation where an employee has been confirmed as having the virus?
Many thank in advance DJ.
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1. Nothing outside current PHE advice. 2. There was a virus scenario exercise using SARS going around a while ago. In a previous job we used that for a desktop business continuity exercise. In the education sector that mostly led to staff and students being despatched home and working electronically using Skype and other conferencing systems for lectures and meetings.
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Unfortunately the issue is not with the diagnosed but the masses contacting each other through public transport (plane, train, ship, ferry), transport hubs (stations, terminals, airports, service stations) and others (restaurants, cinemas, theatres, work etc..). Contingencies assume power and communications are not affected - telecoms engineers will meet in the workplace and interact with the general population. Gas and water rely upon electrical pumps.......
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Rank: Super forum user
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Unfortunately the issue is not with the diagnosed but the masses contacting each other through public transport (plane, train, ship, ferry), transport hubs (stations, terminals, airports, service stations) and others (restaurants, cinemas, theatres, work etc..). Contingencies assume power and communications are not affected - telecoms engineers will meet in the workplace and interact with the general population. Gas and water rely upon electrical pumps.......
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Rank: Super forum user
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davidJohn Do you a contingency plan for dealing with an employee that is diagnosed with bacterial meningitis (a killer) or TB? Do you monitor the spread of other diseases and assess whether it is safe for people to travel into areas where such diseases are endemic? We need a little perspective!
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 5 users thanked A Kurdziel for this useful post.
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Agreed that the last thing we need is to turn a molehill into a mountain, but has anyone considered an office worker who does not normally work form home but would need to self isolate themselves for two weeks and still get some work done remotely?
(Obviously someone who is based on a production line or warehouse could not actively do this work from home but could still self isolate) What things should be considered, I.E. suitable working arrangements with a laptop, distractions from other family members, visitors or pet?
I welcome your views.
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We have so far followed national advice, and just updated all our staff regulary on basic oral and hand hygeine, provided hand sanitisers etc. We have been considering the different scenarios 1. Someone in offcie gets diagnosed 2. National advice changes to reccomendation not to travel into the city 3. Our building is closed down by building management Also, at what times of days this happend (within or outside work hours). We have checked all employees ability to work from home (many already do) - We have had those who have computers and internat set up a WFH connection and test it - looked at whata ddiitonal equiptment may be needs e.g laptops for those who dont have computers, mobile phones, scanners, printers for essential tasks. - Re-directing post - Legal duties around pay. Statutory sick pay for self-isolation (do we pay full pay for the recommended 4 weeks self-quarentine period, when our company sick pay is only 11 days, what if someone cannot perfom their jobs from home e.g. cleaners etc).
- How would we communicare with our staff (we have set up texting service to notiify everyone, then sub whats app groups for different teams etc) - Lone working - keeping in communication with staff - DSE requirements Hopefully it wont be needed, but good to have reviewed our BCP.
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Afternoon,
I work for the UK arm of an international church and charity. So foreign travel: currently sticking to WHO/PHE guidance though we are putting the question to our senior managers for their deliberation (we in this case being the response team members of which I am one).
We are working on policy for home and remote working, though we also have an issue where some of our workers could be locked-down in a workplace (we have homeless hostels and residential homes for elderly people). One consideration is the capacity of our IT provider: can they support an additional several hundred home workers if that's what needed? Other considerations you have mentioned in your post: provision of hardware, tools for remote meetings (we use something called Lifesize but there's also Skype, Facetime etc), tools for remote collaboration such as GoogleDocs.
You might also need to consider the knock-on effects of problems with critical suppliers: in our case that's catering in our residential services, and medications in our residential homes.
As for mountains and molehills, and Andy K's comment about TB or meningitis, see my comments on the general COVID-19 thread. It's not so much about the lethality of this virus, but it's virulence and the potential rate of spread. Lethality aside, it has the capacity to cause a level of disruption which viral meningitis or TB do not,
John
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1 user thanked jwk for this useful post.
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Originally Posted by: A Kurdziel  davidJohn Do you a contingency plan for dealing with an employee that is diagnosed with bacterial meningitis (a killer) or TB? Do you monitor the spread of other diseases and assess whether it is safe for people to travel into areas where such diseases are endemic? We need a little perspective!
Yes we do and I agree...we aren't getting too excited about this apart from the obvious precautions...of reducing travel to and from affected areas...but I provide the updates based on our own local information from our medical teams in country and global information which informs policy and direction...we monitor daily (output from the local teams) and review 2 weekly unless our risk/ alert status changes...currently set for COVID-19 at moderate/ low which is in line with EU CDC current risk assessment....
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Originally Posted by: Ovo What things should be considered, I.E. suitable working arrangements with a laptop, distractions from other family members, visitors or pet?
When I work from home (as I am today, as it happens) I do so because there are way way way fewer distractions working at home than there are in the office.
FWIW, we do have an office in Hong Kong and we have had people caught up in travel bans.
In the UK we are following government advice, we've suspened business travel to or from any region on the 'cat 1' list. We've advised staff to self-isolate if returning from anywhere on the lists, and we will deliver IT hardware to them if they don't already have it so they can work at home. If they work at home they need to be able to provide a working space that passes the DSE workstation assessment. Whether they manage to get themselves set up to work at home or not we're continuing anyone validly self-isolated on full pay.
Currently I think we've got two people in the UK self-isolated (having recently returned from mainland China).
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Hi ALL, All valid responses and thanks for feeding back on this thread. Since i orginally posted we have like most have followed local government guidlines and advice around managing the various different scenarions. We now have plans in place should we have a confirmed case and have been proactive in communciating witht he business to provide updated advice and reassurance witin the workplace. This has included posters being placed up around the workplace, increased cleaning rotas and focus on key touch points, hand sanitisers etc..
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Slightly OT.
Has anyone heard on the news this morning that the coronavirus is reportable under RIDDOR?? My director mentioned it this morning, but I can't see why it would be (as it's not 'occupational')? I know it's reportable to the PHE, but as far as I'm concerned, it wouldn't be to the HSE; am I right? Furthermore, nothing is updated to say differently on the HSE RIDDOR section.
I am thinking he may have got his 'wires crossed' but just wanted to be sure. Please confirm? Thanks.
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He is confusing notifable to PHE with notifiable under RIDDOR There is a news story that because the English government has not declared Covid-19 notifiable (unlike the devolved assemblies) certain insurances are not effective e.g. hotel owners for cancelled bookings
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He is confusing notifable to PHE with notifiable under RIDDOR There is a news story that because the English government has not declared Covid-19 notifiable (unlike the devolved assemblies) certain insurances are not effective e.g. hotel owners for cancelled bookings
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Notifiable means that if a doctor suspects that someone has the disease, they must report to PHE. As said this has been a requirement in the devolved regions for some time. It does not relate to RIDDOR and the reporting requirements for Occupational Dieses. If a health care worker catches the disease is already a requirement to report it under RIDDOR. See regulation 9 of RIDDOR: where, in relation to a person at work, the responsible person receives a diagnosis of (b) any disease attributed to an occupational exposure to a biological agent, the responsible person must follow the reporting procedure ... This is likely to cause an increase in the number of diagnosed cases: but that’s what happens if you look harder.
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Originally Posted by: Svick1984 Slightly OT.
Has anyone heard on the news this morning that the coronavirus is reportable under RIDDOR?? My director mentioned it this morning, but I can't see why it would be (as it's not 'occupational')? I know it's reportable to the PHE, but as far as I'm concerned, it wouldn't be to the HSE; am I right? Furthermore, nothing is updated to say differently on the HSE RIDDOR section.
I am thinking he may have got his 'wires crossed' but just wanted to be sure. Please confirm? Thanks.
To be fair that was my first thought when I woke up to the Today news article on Radio 4 this morning at 7:30. As it wasn't clear what "notifiable" meant and I couldn't figure out how it could be via RIDDOR, I did some searching.
BBC helpfully put a clarifying article up here which refers to the medical practitioners requirement to notify certain infectious dieases with a link to the relevant .gov page here. ...So no, not RIDDOR.
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Coronavirus & RIDDOR, this place is sometimes more akin to a Monty Python sketch
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Was it Covid-19 that did for the Norweigan Blue?
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Was it Covid-19 that did for the Norweigan Blue?
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No, it was just resting...
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Originally Posted by: Roundtuit There is a news story that because the English government has not declared Covid-19 notifiable (unlike the devolved assemblies) certain insurances are not effective e.g. hotel owners for cancelled bookings
This advice from the government is very misleading. Whilst a very small number of policies may include loss of income as a consequence of an outbreak of a Notifiable disease, the vast majority of policies refer to a list of Specified diseases, which obviously do not include Covid-19 as a previosly unknown virus.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Originally Posted by: RVThompson No, it was just resting...
Yes it was seen pushing up the daisies, ummm !
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