Over the last few months all of our lives have changed, from how we work to how we live and how we are doing business. We all need to work with our strengths and existing best practices. We are still learning about the epidemiology of the Covid-
19, but we can put practices in place to protect companies and employees. Don’t be afraid to ask questions of your consultants or local departments of public health.
If you have questions communicate with public health and management and the
local hospital system.
On February 11, 2020 the World Health Organization announced an official name forthe disease that is causing the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak, first identified in Wuhan China. The new name of this disease is coronavirus disease 2019, abbreviated as COVID-19. In COVID-19, ‘CO’ stands for ‘corona,’ ‘VI’ for ‘virus,’ and ‘D’ for disease. Formerly, this disease was referred to as “2019 novel coronavirus” or “2019-nCoV”.
“There are many types of human coronaviruses including some that commonly causemild upper-respiratory tract illnesses. COVID-19 is a new disease, caused be a novel (or new) coronavirus that has not previously been seen in humans. The name of this disease was selected following the World Health Organization (WHO) for naming of new human infectious diseases. –CDC.gov“
“While there is no published evidence of contracting the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from touching food or food packaging that came in contact with the virus due to coughing or sneezing from an infected person, the virus causing COVID-19 can survive on surfaces and objects for a certain amount of time.” -www.hsph.harvard.edu
It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object, like a packaging container, that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.In general, because of poor survivability of these coronaviruses on surfaces, there it is likely very low risk of spread from food products or packaging but human to human transmission is a real issue especially if we are close together and not using PPE. Facilities should immediately develop and implement an infection control plan to address necessary strategies to protect employees while maintaining continuity of operations.
Areas of Focus: