April 20, 2020

As communities across the United States take steps to slow the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by limiting close contact, people are facing new challenges and questions about how to meet basic household needs, such as buying groceries and medicine, getting gas and banking. The following information provides advice about how to meet these household needs in a safe and healthy manner. Shopping for Food and Other Household Essentials If you need to go to the store to gather household essentials or groceries, keep the following tips in mind: Stay home if you’re feeling sick—Avoid shopping if you are sick or have symptoms of COVID-19, which include a fever, cough or shortness of breath. Order online or use curbside pickup—If possible, order food and other items online for home delivery or curbside pickup. Only visit the grocery store, or other stores selling household essentials, in person when you absolutely need to. This will limit your potential exposure to others and the virus that causes COVID-19. Protect yourself while shopping—If you’re unable to order your goods online or you must go shopping inside the store, keep these tips in mind to stay safe: Stay at least 6 feet away from others while shopping and in lines. Cover your mouth and nose with a cloth face covering when you have to go out in public. When you do have to visit in person, go during hours when fewer people will be there (for example, early morning or late night). If you are at higher risk for severe illness, find out if the store has special hours for people at higher risk. If they do, try to shop during those hours. People at higher risk for severe illness include adults 65 or older and people of any age who have serious underlying medical conditions. Disinfect the shopping cart by using disinfecting wipes, if available. Do not touch your eyes, nose and mouth. If possible, use touchless payment (pay without touching money, a card or a keypad). If you must handle money or use a card or keypad, use hand sanitizer right after paying. Accepting Deliveries, Takeout and Mail Keep the following tips in mind to stay safe when you accept deliveries and get your mail: Limit in-person contact if possible. Pay online or on the phone when you order (if possible). Accept deliveries without in-person contact whenever possible. Ask for deliveries to be left in a safe spot outside your house (such as your front porch or lobby), with no person-to-person interaction. Otherwise, stay at least 6 feet away from the delivery person. Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer after accepting deliveries or collecting mail. After receiving your delivery or bringing home your takeout food, wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds. If soap and water are not available, use a hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. After collecting mail from a post office or home mailbox, wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use a hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. Banking If you need to do banking during the COVID-19 pandemic, keep these tips in mind to stay safe: Bank online whenever possible. If you must visit the bank, use the drive-thru ATM if one is available. Clean the ATM keyboard with a disinfecting wipe before you use it. When you are done, use a hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds when you get home. Getting Gasoline If you need to fill up your gas tank during the pandemic, keep these tips in mind to stay safe: Use gloves or disinfecting wipes on handles and buttons before you touch them (if available) After fueling, use a hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. Wash your hands for at east 20 seconds when you get home or somewhere with soap or water. Going to the Doctor If you’re feeling ill due to COVID-19 or another unrelated reason, keep these tips in mind to stay safe: Talk to your doctor online, by phone or email. Use telemedicine, if available, or communicate with your doctor or nurse by phone or email. Talk to your doctor about rescheduling procedures that are not urgently needed. If you must visit in-person, protect yourself and others with these tips: Cover your mouth and nose with a cloth face covering when you have to go out in public. Do not touch your eyes, nose and mouth. Use disinfecting wipes on frequently touched surfaces such as handles, knobs and touchpads (if available). Stay at least 6 feet away from others while inside and in lines. When paying, use touchless payment methods if possible. If you cannot use touchless payment, sanitize your hands after paying via card, cash or check. Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds when you get home. Note: If you think you have COVID-19, let the office know and follow this guidance. Going to the Pharmacy If you need to go to the pharmacy to get medications, keep these tips in mind to stay safe: Plan to order and pick up all your prescriptions at the same time. If possible, call prescription orders in ahead of time. Use drive-thru windows, curbside services (wait in your car until the prescription is ready), mail-order or other delivery services. Do the same for pet medications. Check with your doctor and pharmacist to see if you can get a larger supply of your medications so you do not have to visit the pharmacy as often. More Information For more information regarding how to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to have an unprecedented effect on daily life, many business owners are looking forward to the future and a return to normalcy. However, even when stay-at-home orders are lifted and nonessential businesses are allowed to resume operations, there’s a lot for organizations to consider before they reopen their doors. What’s more, many of these considerations are workplace-specific and could be more involved depending on the industry you operate in. To protect their customers and employees alike, it’s important for organizations to do their due diligence before opening their business back up to the public following the COVID-19 pandemic. Determining When to Reopen While many essential businesses (e.g., hospitals, pharmacies, grocery stores and gas stations) have remained open during the COVID-19 pandemic, other operations deemed nonessential have shut down temporarily or changed the nature of their operations. Not only has this led to significant business disruptions, but, for many, it has critically impacted their bottom line. However, we may be nearing a time when stay-at-home regulations are scaled back and all businesses are allowed to resume as normal. The question then is: How will business owners know it is acceptable to reopen? The following are some best practices to keep in mind: Review guidance from state and local governments—The COVID-19 pandemic impacts states and regions in different ways. Just because a business is allowed to reopen in one region of the country doesn’t automatically mean your operations will be allowed to resume as well. As such, it’s critical to understand and review all relevant state and local orders to determine if and when your business is allowed to reopen. Understand the risks—If and when the government allows all businesses to reopen, that doesn’t necessarily mean COVID-19 is no longer a threat to your operations. What’s more, some businesses may have greater COVID-19 exposures than others, underscoring the importance of performing a thorough risk assessment before reopening. Prior to conducting a risk assessment, it’s important to review guidance from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), state and local agencies, industry associations as well as your local health department. More information on conducting a risk assessment can be found below. Again, before reopening, it’s critical to seek the expertise of legal, insurance and other professionals. Conducting a Risk Assessment Even after the government allows businesses to reopen, firms still need to determine if it makes sense to resume operations. Safely restarting your business won’t be as simple as unlocking the front door. Before reopening, businesses should perform a risk assessment to determine what steps must be taken. While the complexity of risk assessments will differ from business to business, they typically involve the following steps: Identifying the hazards—When it comes to COVID-19, businesses need to think critically about their exposures, particularly if an infected person entered their facilities. When identifying hazards, it’s a good idea to perform a walkthrough of the premises and consider high-risk areas (e.g., breakrooms and other areas where people may congregate). It’s also important to consider what tasks employees are performing and whether or not they are especially exposed to COVID-19 risks when performing their duties. Deciding who may be harmed and how—Once you’ve identified hazards to your business, you need to determine what populations of your workforce are exposed to COVID-19 risks. When performing this evaluation, you will need to make note of high-risk individuals (e.g., staff members who meet with customers or individuals with preexisting medical conditions). Assessing risks—Once you have identified the risks facing your business, you must analyze them to determine their potential consequences. For each risk facing your business, you’ll want to determine: How likely is this particular risk to occur? What are the ramifications should this risk occur? When analyzing your risks, consider potential financial losses, compliance requirements, employee safety, business disruptions, reputational harm and other consequences. Controlling risks—With a sense of what the threats to your business are, you can then consider ways to address them. There are a variety of methods businesses can use to manage their risks, including: Risk avoidance—Risk avoidance is when a business eliminates certain hazards, activities and exposures from their operations altogether. Risk control—Risk control involves preventive action. Risk transfer—Risk transfer is when a business transfers their exposures to a third party. For COVID-19, control measures could include cleaning protocols, work from home orders and mandated personal protective equipment (PPE) usage. Additional workplace considerations can be found below. Monitoring the results—Risk management is an evolving, continuous process. Once you’ve implemented a risk management solution, you’ll want to monitor its effectiveness and reassess. Remember, COVID-19 risks facing your business can change over time. Maintaining Workplace Safety Using OSHA and CDC Guidance Once you conduct a risk assessment, you will need to act to control COVID-19 risks. Again, risks and the corrective steps that organizations take to address those risks will vary by business and industry. Thankfully, there are a number of OSHA and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) workplace controls to consider if your risk assessment determines that COVID-19 poses a threat to your employees or customers. For instance, you should: Implement administrative controls—Typically, administrative controls are changes in work policies or procedures that reduce or minimize an individual’s exposure to a hazard. An example of an administrative control for COVID-19 is establishing alternating days or extra shifts that reduce the total number of employees in a facility at a given time. Utilize Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)— PPE is equipment worn by individuals to reduce exposure to a hazard, in this case, CVOID-19. Businesses should focus on training workers on and proper PPE best practices. Employees should understand how to properly put on, take off and care for PPE. Training material should be easy to understand and must be available in the appropriate language and literacy level for all workers. Consider engineering controls—Engineering controls protect workers by removing hazardous conditions or by placing a barrier between the worker and the hazard. For COVID-19, engineering controls can include: Installing