Reopen and Stay Open: Include Testing in Your COVID-19 Plan
Being proactive with a plan in place, including having test kits on-hand, will help you react quickly to any COVID-19 “surprises”
Time to reopen your small business! More and more people are getting vaccinated and that is great news to help get our lives (and our businesses) back to normal. Now it’s time to identify the steps you can take to help keep your employees safe and reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in non-healthcare settings.
As we outlined in our last article, make sure you are following all local, state and federal health department mandates for the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to any OSHA requirements (if applicable). As more people get vaccinated and infection rates go down, mandates will continue to be lifted. That does not mean that SARS-CoV-2 has completely gone away. To protect your team and customers, it is important to be prepared in the event that COVID-19 infections pop-up among your employees.
The CDC Guidance for Businesses & Employers outlines steps to reduce the spread of COVID-19 within a business (and more specifically for those with unvaccinated employees):¹
- Actively encourage sick employees to stay home;
- Consider conducting daily in-person or virtual health checks such as symptom and temperature screening;
- Keep mask requirements in-place for employees who are not vaccinated;
- Keep PPE supplies on-hand to quickly react to COVID-19 cases (3-ply masks, touchless thermometer, gloves, hand sanitizer, surface disinfectant);
- Create and communicate the plan of how to deal with a positive test result among your workforce;
- Incorporate testing programs to actively monitor for infections.
Let’s dig a little deeper into this last one — testing programs. Employers are approaching testing in different ways, and you will need to decide the best path for your company.
Employee-Provided Test Results
If you will be asking employees to provide testing results on their own under specific circumstances, communicate clearly when they need to provide results and what type of test is acceptable. The charts below will help you with both of those decisions. You can also purchase tests in advance and send them home with each employee. This may lead to greater compliance and ensure the test is available for employees when it is needed.
Testing at the Workplace
A workplace-based testing program is often more comprehensive and could help identify infected workers early, even without symptoms, and thus help reduce further transmission. Workplace-based testing typically considers symptom screening, testing and contract tracing as part of the approach. For this type of program, the CDC guidance for testing in the workplace provides the following to consider:²
- Collaborate with state, territorial, tribal and local officials, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) which outlines permissible testing policies and procedures;
- Obtain the employee’s consent prior to executing a testing program. Provide clear information on the manufacturer and name of the test, the purpose and how to understand the results. Provide a copy of the Patient Fact Sheet when asking an employee to take a test;
- Use the right test for the right situation.³
Purchasing COVID-19 Tests for Your Business
Over-the-Counter (OTC), also known as Direct-to-Consumer (DTC), are designations used on COVID-19 test kit packaging to indicate when a person can use the test without a prescription. The list of tests with this designation is expanding daily as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorizes more suppliers under its Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) program.
A key resource available is “ConnectToTest” which helps you determine which test is right for you and your business based on your current situation. There are also testing services companies that will help you establish a workplace testing program.
Running a business is hard. We’re here to make it easier. Let the Project N95 team know if you have questions about testing for your business. The customer support team is available 7 days a week, and can be reached by email (info@projectn95.com), chat or phone (205) 528–3060.
Project N95, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, provides equitable access to vetted personal protective equipment (PPE) and COVID-19 test kits from verified suppliers. The test kits available or coming soon in the Project N95 Shop that are best suited for use in your business are outlined in the chart below.
Sources
- COVID-19 Guidance: Businesses and Employers | CDC
- Interim Guidance for SARS-CoV-2 Testing in Non-Healthcare Workplaces
- SARS-CoV-2 Testing Strategy: Considerations for Non-Healthcare Workplaces | COVID-19 | CDC
Who am I? I am a volunteer with ProjectN95.org who is using my background in nutrition, marketing, supply chain and FDA regulations to vet PPE and COVID-19 Test Kits. My focus started with N95 respirators, then moved on to hand sanitizers and surface disinfectants and now includes working with suppliers of COVID-19 test kits. The tips in this post and future posts are to help you better understand how to select products to help keep you and your family and coworkers safe during the pandemic. This information was compiled using government websites, consulting experts and working with an amazing law firm in DC who is also donating their time to ProjectN95.org. If you have a talent that you think could help ProjectN95.org, please sign-up to volunteer — Roles | Project N95!
Learn more about Project N95 and donate here to help make sure everyone has access to the PPE they need to keep them safe.
