Katanning businesses told to stay alert but not alarmed as community prepares for COVID-19 transmission

Great Southern businesses are being advised to stay alert but not alarmed as community spread of COVID-19 approaches the region. This was the take-home message from a seminar held in Katanning to prepare local businesses for operating in a higher case-load environment. Albany Business Centre senior business consultant Richard Keeler, executive director Mark Shenton and Katanning Health Service nursing director Tina Jones took questions from more than 15 attendees at the former council chambers on February 24. Mr Keeler told attendees that preventing the spread of COVID in the workplace was “better than the cure”. “When you’re looking at your employees in the workplace . . . spread them out evenly,” he said. “The more distance between people, the more airflow through your building, the more fresh air people will be getting, the better off you are going to be and therefore you are reducing your risk.” When it comes to cleaning the office, soap and water should be used to remove any dirt, and disinfectant to kill bacteria. Other tips included ensuring there was adequate supply of hand sanitiser and requiring employees and visitors to scan contact tracing QR codes. “If you practice those sort of things in your workplace, you will reduce very much reduce the risk of COVID spreading,” Mr Keeler said. Mr Keeler said any common space such as kitchens and bathrooms should be cleaned frequently. “If that means getting a cleaner in once a day or setting some of your staff aside to do some extra cleaning, it’s worth the investment because if you keep this out of your workplace, you will be saving yourselves money,” he said. If a member of the workforce was suffering from flu and cold-like symptoms, the best thing to do was tell them to stay away from work, Mr Keeler said. “Encourage people to take extra time off if they are not feeling well and trust they’re doing the right thing,” he said. If an employee tested positive to COVID, the employer will be notified and the WA Department of Health will inform business owners what needs to happen at their workplace. “The COVID team will contact you and talk through the things you will have to do specifically in your business,” Mr Keeler said. “They may even make a site visit if they deem it necessary but a lot of it will be done over the phone. “Once something like that happens, you’re pretty much in the care of the COVID team directing you on how best to manage this. “It doesn’t mean your business has to close, it doesn’t mean you have to stop having your employees at work but it does mean you have got to follow their directions and part of that may be having a bigger clean through the premises.” Katanning nursing director Tina Jones said workplaces would not necessarily be able to be able to conduct a deep clean in the case of a positive case as in a hospital environment. “We do environmental cleaning in hospitals and all our surfaces are designed for that, so for non-hospital environments such as offices, it’s about keeping things clean and keeping physical distance, but you’re not going to get the degree of environmental cleaning that we would do in a hospital,” she said. The presenters recommended using professional-standard cleaning services in the event of a COVID-positive case in the workplace, and temporarily removing communal furnishings which were difficult to clean.