Business Guidance

Prepare employees

Communicate with employees on what they can expect when they return. Provide training or guidance on new safe work requirements or practices. Give employees an overview of physical distancing measures, hand washing and sanitizing practices, health screens, sick leave options and resources for child care or health care. Additionally, consider continued telework options and incorporating a positive environment for hybrid workers.

Building access

Develop protocols for safety and health checks, shipping and receiving, elevators and visitors.

Physical distancing measures

Establish physical distancing rules for the workplace by spreading out work spaces, staggering work schedules and reducing common area usage. Employers may also continue to offer telework options for vulnerable employees.

Comprehensive sanitation protocols

Develop a regular cleaning plan for the workplace including break rooms and common touch areas like doorknobs. Employers should make cleaning products available to employees for their work areas.

Governor Ducey and the Arizona Department of Health Services outlined healthy practices for individuals, including:

• Continue to practice good hygiene
• Wash your hands with soap and water or use hand sanitizer, especially after touching frequently used items or surfaces
• Avoid touching your face
• Cover your cough or sneeze, cough into a tissue or the inside of your elbow
• Disinfect frequently used items and surfaces as much as possible
• Strongly consider wearing face coverings while in public and particularly when using public transit
• People who feel sick should stay home
• Do not go to work or school
• Contact and follow the advice of your medical provider

Keeping the Workplace Safe

• Educate employees about how they can reduce the spread of COVID-19
• Conduct temperature or wellness checks at the start of shifts to ensure employees to not exhibit COVID-19 symptoms (fever of greater than 100.4 F, cough, shortness of breath)
• Stagger work shifts so employees are not entering and leaving at the same time
• Create physical distancing measures for work areas such as separating seating arrangements by six feet
• Establish remote policies to have an inclusive culture for remote employees
• Limit large gatherings such as meetings and opt for virtual meetings
• Consider barriers such as plexiglass between employees and customers
• Use contactless payment options

Visitor Protocol

The Arizona Department of Health Services recommends screening anyone who enters the facility including staff, essential outside contractors and visitors. Post signage in entryways or where everyone entering the building will see the need for screening. 

Screening for symptoms consistent with COVID-19 includes:

• Fever of greater than 100.4 F
• Cough
• Contact with a COVID-19 patient within the previous 14 days

ADHS VISITOR GUIDANCE

Physical distancing

• Implement one-way aisles
• Reduce the number of sales associates on the floor
• Reduce store operations that would encourage clustering such as food samples, dressing rooms

Hand Hygiene

AZDHS recommends washing your hands with soap and water or using hand sanitizer, especially after touching frequently used items or surfaces. Here is a helpful guide on how to effectively wash hands.

HOW TO WASH YOUR HANDS

The CDC provides guidance for businesses and employers to respond the COVID-19 and recommends employers actively encourage sick employees to stay home. The CDC states that at this time symptoms of the coronavirus may appear in as few as 2 days or as long as 14 days after exposure. Employees who have symptoms such as a fever (greater than 100.4 F), cough, or shortness of breath should stay home.

An employer can support a healthy environment by:

• Ensure flexible sick leave policies that are consistent with public health guidance 
• Discuss the importance of sick employees staying home with companies your business works with.
• Do not require a healthcare provider’s note for employees who are sick with acute respiratory illness to validate their illness or to return to work, as healthcare provider offices and medical facilities may be extremely busy and not able to provide such documentation in a timely way.

• Maintain flexible policies that permit employees to stay home to care for a sick family member. Employers should be aware that more employees may need to stay at home to care for sick children or other sick family members than is usual.

Employees who are sick should:

• Stay home and avoid contact with other people as much as possible except to seek medical care.
• Separate from other people and animals in their home.
• Call ahead before visiting the doctor.
• Wear a facemask, cover coughs and sneezes, and clean hands often.
• Avoid sharing personal household items and clean all “high-touch” surfaces everyday.
• Seek prompt medical attention if the illness is worsening. 
• Persons who are placed under active monitoring or facilitated self-monitoring should follow instructions provided by their local health department or occupational health professionals, as appropriate.
• Patients with confirmed coronavirus should remain under home isolation precautions until the risk of secondary transmission to others is thought to be low. The decision to discontinue home isolation precautions should be made on a case-by-case basis, in consultation with healthcare providers and state and local health departments.

MORE GUIDELINES FROM THE CDC

To slow the spread of COVID-19 the CDC and the Arizona Department of Health Services recommend employees and customers wear face masks. The CDC advises using simple face cloth coverings, not surgical masks or N-95 respirators which are critical supplies for healthcare workers and medical first responders.

Cloth face masks can be fashioned from household items or made at low cost. To learn more about how to fashion your own face covering, the CDC has a helpful guide.

CDC face mask guide

ADHS partnered with Hanes to provide free face masks to Arizona's most vulnerable populations.

ORDER FACE MASKS

To find a local retailer to buy face masks, visit Local First Arizona's list.

Face mask retailer list