How do sanitizing mats fit into a COVID-19 safety plan?

As part of a controlled, safe restart of normal operations, the Provincial Health Officer and WorkSafeBC have issued guidelines for how workplaces can manage the risk of spreading COVID-19 as people return to workplaces and retail businesses reopen. Although these guidelines are intended to cover most circumstances, they’re not a definitive list. Harry Bains, the BC Minister of Labour, urged businesses to develop their own processes and safety plans based off of provincial guidelines.

“The guidelines were never intended as a silver bullet, one-size-fits-all solution,” he said. “[Businesses] need to devise their own guidelines that suit their needs. I think they need to ensure that their customers have the confidence to come and patronize their businesses. That their workers feel safe to go to work.”

To ensure that businesses are actually implementing these plans, WorkSafeBC will be conducting random inspections of businesses reopening to ensure compliance. This will include inspections of restaurants and salons, as well as factories, manufacturers and service providers. Bains said he expects most businesses will comply with the guidelines that are in place, but that provisions have been made for penalties. In the first six months of 2020, the province has conducted more than 15,000 inspections – up 50% from the 10,000 inspections conducted in all of 2019.

WorkSafeBC’s has structured their safety plan guidelines as a pyramid of ascending steps of protection to reduce the risk of person to person transmission of COVID-19.

The second level of this pyramid – the Engineering Controls level – is where physical barriers to transmission are implemented, and this is where sanitizing mats come into play. Sanitizing mats installed at all the external entry points to your building can help create a barrier to bringing in new sources of infection via footwear, and can contribute a great deal to your workplace COVID-19 safety plan with minimal cost. And for retail spaces, you create goodwill value in the minds of your customers by demonstrating that you’re taking the COVID-19 threat seriously and are going the extra mile to protect their safety while patronizing your business. Going that extra mile also wouldn’t hurt if your business is one of those randomly inspected by WorkSafeBC as well!

We’ve got Grizzly Sanitize mat systems in stock and ready to ship. Reach out today to get one for your reopening business!