• Friday, March 29, 2024
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BusinessDay

How safe is it to go back to the office?

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It is “impossible” to make the office 100 per cent safe, says Paul Hunter, professor of Medicine at the University of East Anglia. “You could spend millions on preparations and then someone gets the infection from the journey in. You can’t legislate for all these transmissions.”

Experts and officials remain divided over the most basic aspects of the virus that causes Covid-19, from the way it spreads to the length of time it lasts on a desk.

But all agree there is no single miracle measure that protects the workforce. Instead, there are many that add up to reducing the risk.

As companies gingerly prepare to reopen their offices, here is a taste of the uncertainties they face.

How safe are offices?

It depends on how they are laid out, cleaned and ventilated.

The open plan office had a bad health reputation long before Covid-19. People working in them took as much as 62 per cent more sick leave than those in more private spaces, studies showed.

Concerns have surged with a virus that experts say is mainly spread by droplets expelled by a cougher, sneezer, or talker that can infect a bystander directly or contaminate nearby surfaces.

After the virus ripped through a Seoul call centre, infecting nearly half the 216 workers on one floor, South Korean health officials reported the pathogen could be “exceptionally contagious in crowded office settings”.

Authorities around the world now advise employers to make sure people can work as far apart as possible but this is not straightforward. Shifts can be staggered, but that requires careful management and it undermines the cost savings that open plan offices are supposed to create. Other measures such as sneezeguard screens between desks might be relatively easy to install but Covid-19 requires frequent cleaning in all occupied office space, and that is expensive.

Do systems help to spread the virus?

The evidence is patchy but transmission risk can’t be dismissed.

One of the biggest unknowns about Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes the Covid-19 disease, is the extent to which it can spread via smaller particles that float in the air like pollen, not just larger droplets, and potentially pose a threat in badly ventilated, crowded spots indoors where people linger.

Updated guidance from the World Health Organization last month acknowledges that so-called airborne transmission “cannot be ruled out”, lending weight to theories that a recent rise in Covid-19 cases in warmer southern US states could be due to people spending more time together in air-conditioned rooms.
When US researchers studied the ventilation system in an Oregon hospital treating Covid-19 patients, they found enough genetic material from the virus to conclude that air-conditioning could potentially help to spread viral particles, though there was no evidence this had happened.

Another study of a restaurant in Guangzhou, China found air blown by an air-conditioner probably helped a diner from Wuhan infect people sitting at two neighbouring tables more than a metre away.

But that air-conditioning unit was recirculating the same air, says Tony Day, an air conditioning expert who has contributed to industry guidance on Covid-19 safety in the UK.

More sophisticated systems that pipe in fresh air from outside should be much safer, he says, adding the dilution of indoor air was critical and windows should be kept open when possible.

The virus is so new that this advice is bound to keep evolving as more evidence emerges. “Nobody’s done this before,” says Mr Day. “We don’t know what the exact level of risk is.”

Can I touch the door handle?

Health officials say that although the virus is mainly transmitted between people, it might be possible for workers to catch it from touching a contaminated light switch or door handle before wiping their mouth, nose, or eyes.

A recent article in the Lancet argued the “chances of transmission through inanimate surfaces is very small” before adding that “erring on the side of caution” was wise.

Scientists found the genetic material of the virus in the cruise ship cabins of infected passengers 17 days after they left the vessel.