2.2 Pandemic BC Execution Stage 2: Response [Part 2]

Monitor Potential High-Risk Employees

During an infectious disease outbreak, these are some of the high-risk situations that organisations may want to monitor closely for employees who:

• Visit hospitals and fall ill with flu-like symptoms.
• Come into contact with overseas visitors from Infectious Disease infected areas.
• Had travelled to Infectious Disease infected areas.
• Had family members or close contacts been quarantined by his/her employer, school or the

Monitor Non-employees

Screen visitors are entering the premises by taking their temperatures. Some of the most vulnerable visitors are contract workers such as:

• Security workers.
• Cleaners

Other visitors including:

• Customers
• Suppliers
• Couriers

Maintain Internal Screening - Self-Reporting

The overheads incurred from the screening of the staff members before they enter the office premises throughout the day can be an expensive one. Organisations are encouraged to ask their staff members to provide self-reporting with the supervisors being accountable.

Take Temperature

Every staff owns a thermometer and carries it to work daily. Each employee must check his/her temperature twice a day, once in the morning before coming to work. Also, the staff members:

• Are required to seek medical treatment if they show signs of Infectious Disease symptoms.
• Are required to stay home at the first sign of any symptom and must be told not to return to the workplace until it is confirmed that they are not infected with the Infectious Disease.
• Should perform temperature taking twice a day and document the readings in a personal health record book.

It is necessary to note that this is a secondary preventive measure. As the virus has an incubation period of more than two days, temperature checking will not be an effective preventive measure.

Every staff member must be encouraged to adopt a personal self-assessment of his/her condition and automatically conduct a self-quarantine.

Staff who Appears to be Sick or Are Sick

These are the possible follow-ups if there are sick employees:

• Isolate staff members with temperature exceeding 38 degrees Celsius, or who appear to be sick, in dedicated quarantine areas.
• Consult the medical staff before deciding whether to send the employee home or summon an ambulance to ferry the staff member to a hospital that handles Infectious Disease treatment.
• Carry out isolation and quarantine only if the staff is “suspected” to be infected and the criteria are based on a checklist.

Quarantine Overseas

There is a possibility of staff members being infected with the Infectious Disease while travelling overseas. They may be subjected to quarantine and travel restriction by the local authorities there.

• Make a necessary assessment with embassies, healthcare professionals and hotel for special emergency arrangements.
• Review validity of medical insurance being used
• Ensure purchase of appropriate travel insurance.
• Prepare and plan to assist staff remotely.
• Make plans for domestic (in-country) quarantine location for employees returning from overseas.
• Plan for accommodation, expenses and working facilities for non-infected staff members whose travel is restricted due to border control.

Evacuation and Transfer

There should be provision for the evacuation of staff and transfer of activity from an Infectious Disease infected country to another. These plans should be specific to each country as countries differ in their regulatory enforcement. Considerations include:

• Protection of staff, assets in the original country.
• The legal implication for operating in another country e.g. immigration visas and work permits.
• Provision for the immediate family members who need to remain in the country.

Work Steps: Response

These are some of the anticipated work steps that the local government and organisations may use to respond to the situation.

Local Government

• Activate “Alert Code” for a single isolated case or cluster.
• Maintain effective surveillance to detect the importation of a novel influenza virus.
• Step up border control such as temperature screening and health alert notices.
• Upgrade infection control in hospitals and clinics.
• Maintain information management for all health care personnel across the public, private and voluntary sectors.
• Provide ring-fencing of infected cases for as long as feasible.
• Implement closure of the border to all non-nationals.
• Quarantine all citizens returning from hot spots.
• Enhance internal disease surveillance and notification.
• Investigate and follow up on any suspect cases.

Business

• Operational and Business Continuity
• Setup crisis management team.
• Establish and communicate the trigger point to take the necessary activation and response actions.
• Activate incident management structure.
• Effect movement of staff to new locations e.g. across offices, to new sites or working from home.
• Implement mitigation measures such as banning travels and meetings.
• Monitor all infectious disease incidents and outbreaks around the world.
• Update plans periodically based on changes in the threat.
• Review or test essential BC measures.
• Perform periodic exercises with different scenarios.
• Continue testing and re-testing of BC plans.
• Comply with government measures and legal guidelines.
• Communication
• Communicate with stakeholders and employees.
• Monitor and report possible cases to health authorities.
• Alert staff members to change in infectious disease status.
• Increase the level of communication with staff members.
• Setup an infectious disease website to communicate with both internal and external parties.
• Establish communication channels to handle staff enquiries and issues.
• Man, all helplines and customer services.
• Communicate with appropriate personnel throughout the organisation.
• Communicate with staff to improve confidence in the workplace.
• Maintain regular situation report meetings to monitor the teams that are affected or at risk.
• Enhance and adjust security arrangement.
• Personnel, Health, and Safety
• Monitor on a daily basis to ascertain the number of staffs available on an organisation-wide level. These figures can be modelled to predict the future unavailability of the workforce.
• Implement complete hygiene regimes.
• Enforce special HR policies and protocols e.g. extra time off for looking after family members and alter routine sickness procedures.
• Issue PPE to those who need it e.g. employees who handle customers and who visit customers’ residences.
• Activate overseas travel restrictions for the workforce.
• Activate contact tracing where staff members become ill at work.
• Protect key people and building systems such as ventilation systems.

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