COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S. have hit an all-time high. Medical care providers and local governments nationwide are dealing with a third wave of the pandemic. However, the prospects of new lockdown orders are considerably low. That means safety measures are the only way to deal with this surge in the number of new cases. If you are an employer or a workplace administrator, the responsibility of protecting the workforce rests on your shoulder. And that’s where PPE, like medical protective clothing, comes into play.
In this blog post, we will discuss some road-tested ways of ensuring the safety and well-being of your workforce amid the deadly pandemic. These are clearly not everything that you can to ensure workplace safety. But if you implement all these best practices rightly, your workers are likely to be much safer than they usually are. Read on to know all the COVID safety best practices.
Spread awareness about PPE
Many employees may not understand how crucial PPE is for ensuring workplace safety. When they know the risks of not wearing PPE, they are more likely to strictly follow safety guidelines. Instead of just providing your workers with masks and other protective equipment, educate them. Once they get to know the facts and benefits of properly wearing PPE, safety practices become more effective.
Ensure open & effective communication
Like most other areas of effective workplace management, communication is key to COVID safety. Engage your employees in discussions about safety gear like medical protective clothing and other PPE. You can also ask the employees how their PPE is working for them and the challenges they face in wearing them. Promptly addressing complaints is another critical thing while ensuring workplace safety amid the pandemic.
Lead by example
There’s no better way of convincing your employees to follow something than practicing it yourself. The concept of leading by example is useful for ensuring PPE best practices, as well. Your trustworthiness as a leader grows if you start practicing the things that you’re trying to convince others to do. So, start demonstrating the kind of leadership that is likelier to be more effective in managing workplace safety.
Use the right protective equipment
Using the right personal protective equipment is perhaps the most crucial of all the things we are discussing in this post. And it’s not just applicable to workplaces, but also in your day-to-day life in the middle of the pandemic. As we move deeper into colder seasons, cases are likely to surge further. That means we cannot let our guard down at all.
Being an employer, you must make sure your safety items are sourced only from reputable personal protective equipment companies and suppliers. Also, provide PPE that is easy to use, clean, and maintain. Cleaning and maintaining are crucial to some PPE. So, buy products that make it easier for wearers to clean, maintain, and even discard.
The pandemic has driven an unprecedented growth of the PPE manufacturing industry. And that makes it difficult for you to find the right bulk PPE suppliers in the USA and elsewhere. Some suppliers are trying to use the persisting PPE shortage to their advantage by selling inferior-quality products. Falling into their trap will not just waste your money but will also put your workplace’s safety at risk.
Implement COVID safety policies
You may already be having workplace safety policies in place. But it’s time to modify them significantly. We are dealing with an unprecedented public health crisis. And old policies cannot address safety concerns induced by the novel coronavirus. From properly wearing PPE to ensuring the desired ventilation, your safety policy must cover everything.
Policies help your workplace administrators and managers to create a uniform safety protocol for everyone. While making the policies, seek help from guidelines of agencies like WHO and CDC. And you must keep some elements of your policy flexible and dynamic since we are still learning new facts about the virus. Government agencies regularly update their guidelines based on the existing situation and new findings.
For instance, the CDC recently updated its guidelines for celebrating the holidays. The agency has emphasized that small gatherings contribute to the surge in new cases being reported.
Rounding off
As mentioned earlier, the new hospitalization record emphasizes the fact that the U.S. has entered the worst period of the pandemic. If we don’t deal with the situation with extreme caution, the consequences will be dire. Since another national lockdown order is unlikely to happen, we must raise the bar for safety measures.
PPE plays the most crucial role while ensuring protection against the virus. And it goes without saying. Mask-wearing, handwashing and social distancing must continue for now alongside other safety measures. At Co-Defend, we are committed to making valuable contributions to the fight against the virus. Being one of the most trusted bulk PPE suppliers in the USA, we stay on our toes to promptly deliver high-quality PPE to every customer.