Over the past month, you have most likely come up with more questions than answers, you’ve accumulated more worries than you’ve ever had before, and are trying to keep yourself and your team afloat, like so many others across the world.

In addition, you’ve probably used phrases that you’d never thought you’d have to say to your adult employees. Things like, “tell your manager if you are running a fever or have a cough; properly wash your hands and disinfect your area multiple times a day; and keep a six-foot distance from your co-workers.” If these steps aren’t followed by your employees, there could be significant repercussions for your team and your manufacturing plant.

As a manager, executive, or owner within a manufacturing facility, a big concern right now is around cash flow and keeping your doors open. One of the most important factors that goes into this is the health of your employees and the questions around what to do if one of your employees tests positive for COVID-19 or has been exposed to someone that has tested positive.

One question the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP) at Georgia Tech staff have repeatedly received is: “How can I afford to shut my plant down for 24 hours to disinfect the workspace?” The answer: “Wouldn’t it be worse if you didn’t shut down to disinfect and then a few weeks later half of your workforce goes down with COVID-19 and you have to shut down longer?”

Put differently: is the small cost at the front end worth the risk of the large price you may have pay on the back end if you don’t sanitize your space properly?

Jenny Houlroyd, senior research scientist with Georgia Tech’s Safety, Health, and Environmental Services (SHES) program, developed this guide with 10 steps to take if one of your employees tests positive for COVID-19:

1. Once an employee has notified their manager that they’ve tested positive for COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control says the employee should no longer report to work. The employee should then remain in isolation until at least seven days have passed since the date of their first positive COVID-19 diagnostic test and they have no subsequent illness, followed by seven additional days of quarantine. Employees must follow the direction of their medical providers and/or local health authorities on when to discontinue home isolation. Employees should not return to work until they have tested negative for the virus. If one of your employees comes to you and says they have not tested positive, but have been exposed to someone who has tested positive, that employee should self-quarantine for the 14-day recommendation.

2. Evacuate and close off the area(s) used by the employee who tested positive for COVID-19. In addition to just shutting down the area that the infected employee worked in, you will need to have a broader understanding of the areas within your facility that they’ve walked through and the shared spaces, such as a break room or rest room that they have been in, and close down those areas as well.

3. Notify all employees who have been in contact with the positive case so that they can self-monitor. In the case of the workplace, “been in contact” is defined as ALL employees in your plant (regardless of shift), since you cannot say for certain which other employees the infected employee has passed in the hall or been in the break-room with. As an employer, it’s your responsibility to alert your team, but due to privacy laws, you may not let others know who on the team tested positive, just that there was a positive case reported.

4. Allow for employees in direct contact of the positive case to self-quarantine for 14 days. In the case of the workplace, “direct contact” is defined as people that work within six feet of the infected individual and those who share common work-spaces.

Examples to differentiate between points three and four include:

• A person in shipping and receiving tests positive for COVID-19:
  • “Been in contact” is everyone within your manufacturing facility
  • “Direct contact” is everyone that works or has been in the shipping and receiving department and/or came in contact with in a communal area of the plant (example – had lunch or coffee with the person)

• A person on a manufacturing line tests positive for COVID-19:
  • “Been in contact” is everyone within your manufacturing facility
  • “Direct contact” is everyone that works in close proximity to that person on the line or the leaders/others that have gathered the team on the line to discuss the day’s work, or and/or came in contact with in a communal area of the plant (example – had lunch or coffee with the person)

5. Open outside doors and windows to increase air circulation in the affected area. Doing this will create an unstable environment for the virus to persist, meaning that the change in temperature or the breeze now coming in through the open windows will help flush out any potential virus in the air.

6. Wait at least 24 hours before you clean or disinfect the compromised area(s). The virus lasts for three hours in the air hour before it breaks down and is no longer airborne, but there are differing opinions on how long the virus lasts on each type of surface. Our recommendation is to wait at least 24 hours before going into the affected area to disinfect it. However, the longer you wait to send others back in, the better the chances are that the virus will have dissipated on each different surface, thus making it safer for your employees. Follow the CDC guidelines on how to clean and disinfect an area. Information can be found at:  cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/organizations/cleaning-disinfection.html.

7. Clean and disinfect all areas used by the person who is sick. Do not just clean their workspace(s). Clean areas such as offices, bathrooms, common areas, shared electronic equipment such as tablets, touch screens, keyboards, remote controls, and ATMs. Consult the Environmental Protection Agency’s registered list of disinfectants for use against SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19, which can be found at: epa.gov/pesticide-registration/list-n-disinfectants-use-against-sars-cov-2

8. The only exception to the above additional cleaning and disinfection, is if it’s been more than seven days since their positive test that the infected employee visited or used the facility, additional cleaning and disinfection is not necessary. If an employee notifies you that they’ve tested positive for COVID-19, but they hadn’t been in your facility for at least seven days, the virus most likely would have already expired on all surfaces.

9. Continue routine cleaning and disinfection. Even if you don’t have any positive cases at your facility, it is still important to take preventative measures. Remember that although these same employees are social distancing, they are still around family members and have most likely been in some other public place such as a grocery store or hardware store. It’s important to educate your entire workforce on how to disinfect their workspace, as well as the facility being responsible for disinfecting common surfaces and wiping down common work areas such as break rooms, lunch rooms, and office areas, much more frequently than under normal circumstances.

10. Determine if a positive COVID-19 case is work-related for compliance with OSHA 1904 Record keeping standards. If the infected person contracted the COVID-19 virus as a direct results of exposure on the job, then it would be considered work related and have to be recorded as an on the job work-related injury/illness. For more information visit: https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/covid-19/standards.html

As an employer, it is your employees’ responsibility to make sure they don’t come to work sick and that if they are exposed or test positive that they report it to you, their employer, as soon as possible. As an employer, it’s your responsibility to keep your employees separated, communicate regularly to your team, frequently sanitize your facility, and take appropriate and immediate action, should one of your team members test positive for COVID-19. Remember, shutting down for 24-hours to prevent further spread is a lot more cost-effective than having to shut down for weeks for an outbreak you could have prevented.

About the Georgia Tech Safety, Health, and Environmental Services (SHES) Program

Georgia Tech’s Safety, Health, and Environmental Services (SHES) program is comprised of safety and health professionals who are trained in pandemic preparedness and are experts in public health. We are committed to ensuring that manufacturing businesses in the state of Georgia get the assistance they need during this difficult time. Each meeting will cover how to develop an Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response Plan, strategies for business continuity, guidance on effective disinfection strategies for manufacturing plants, and recommended resources. The Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP) at Georgia Tech is partnering with SHES to provide free, virtual meetings with companies to discuss strategies to create and implement an Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response Plan.

To learn more about SHES’ safety and health consultation offering, please visit: ohainfo.gatech.edu/.

To request a virtual meeting, fill out this form: oshainfo.gatech.edu/virtual-compliance-assistance-form/.

By Katie Takacs, with the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership

In 2015, Elena Carné, moved to Americus, a small town in South Georgia, with her three daughters. Her idea was two-fold: Be in a slower-paced environment where she could focus on her family and launch an athletic apparel company.

Today, the already successful company, T31 (formerly Tepuy Activewear), a small, minority- and woman-owned manufacturer, has switched gears entirely to produce sought-after face masks and head caps to local hospitals in a part of the state hit hard with coronavirus during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Forty-five minutes away in Albany, Georgia, one of the hospitals there was trying to sew its own masks. Knowing that it couldn’t produce nearly enough to keep up with the demand, hospital administrators reached out to Carné and requested her help. Carné and her team took over the process and in the first seven days of production were able to deliver 4,000 masks to the hospital and are currently manufacturing another 4,000.

“I modified their design to work in a mass production environment and through the help of donations from the local community, we have been able to purchase all of the materials to provide these masks at no cost,” Carné said.

The T31 team now operates seven days a week and produces head coverings for hospital staff and 100 percent cotton, washable face masks that feature slits to slide in disposable filters or as a cover to improve the life span of the N95 masks. In addition, she hired two new full-time employees, and is utilizing volunteers from the area, including high school seniors excited to learn a new skill. These individuals are helping to support the local hospital efforts as well as working on urgent request orders that are now coming in from across the country, turning this small-town manufacturer into an essential business that is creating big impact in a time of need.

“When I came to Americus five years ago, I instantly knew this was home,” she said. “The people here made it special and through this opportunity, I can give back in a different way to a community that has supported me and my business.”

Prior to shifting to face mask production to help those on the front lines of the COVID-19 outbreak, T31 was a four-person shop focused on small order activewear. In December 2017, the company won a grant from the Latin American Chamber of Commerce Georgia and the Latino Community Fund Georgia.

It was during this time that Carné connected with Maria Mar Hill, a project manager with the Southeastern Trade Adjustment Assistance Center (SETAAC) at Georgia Tech.

A federally funded program supported by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, SETAAC provides matching assistance funds to firms experiencing declines due to import competition.

Mar Hill reached out to Carné and recommended that she apply for assistance.

“Maria was amazing,” Carné said. “She walked me through the entire process and was there to answer any questions I had.” After receiving the matching funds, T31 worked with SETAAC vendors to create graphics that represent the company, elevate the photography of its products, and design a new website.

Said Carné: “The funding was a blessing. It allowed me the chance to grow my business while also focusing on areas I needed to improve upon. Without it, I would have had to make a choice of which was more important.”

Today, in addition to staying on top of activewear orders and manufacturing face masks and head coverings for the hospital, Carné is exploring contract opportunities to continue manufacturing critical supplies.

“This is a different time and as a business owner it’s important to be flexible and look for opportunities that are available,” Carné explained. “For me, I’m exactly where I need to be — producing items that are helping people in my community.”

Just like the GaMEP is, the SETAAC program is also based out of the Enterprise Innovation Institute at Georgia Tech. To learn more about the SETAAC program, which helps manufacturers in GA, FL, MS, AL, TN, KY, NC, and SC, when sales are impacted by import competition, click here.

By Katie Takacs, with the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership

The Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI²), Georgia Tech’s economic development arm, has named Tim Israel, director of the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP).

Israel, who had been GaMEP’s associate director and group manager of process improvement, will be responsible for the manufacturing resources and regional staff located across Georgia.

He succeeds Karen Fite, who was named interim vice president of EI² in July of 2019.

“Tim has done an outstanding job in leading our efforts to work with Georgia manufacturers in increasing their efficiencies and process improvements, especially in waste reduction, streamlining operations, and quality control systems implementation,” Fite said. “His experience and expertise, as well as his vast and deep relationships within Georgia Tech and with our GaMEP partners ensures continued success of our mission.”

Israel, a 30-year veteran at Georgia Tech, began his career as a project engineer in Tech’s Gainesville Regional Office. He also served as a project manager in Georgia Tech’s Georgia Productivity and Quality Center (GPQC) and the Center for International Standards and Quality (CISQ).

An expert in lean manufacturing, quality management systems, and supplier development, Israel earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial engineering from Georgia Tech.