Following the government announcement that the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic has passed; focus is now firmly on the lifting of the lockdown. It is unrealistic to expect life to suddenly return to normal.
Organisations will be evaluating the implications of employees return to work alongside the challenge of COVID-19. In the short term, safety from infection will certainly be their primary concern and one effective measure for organisations to consider is contact tracing.
Organisational Contact Tracing
Most of us now understand that contact tracing is a tried and trusted approach employed during the “contain phase” of an outbreak. Its purpose is to prevent the spread of infection.
Whilst perceived to be a national pandemic measure, it can be equally applied within organisations. And whilst it has historically been a costly, manually intensive process, technology is now able to take on much of the heavy lifting.
Why organisations should consider contact tracing?
Contact tracing is a proven method to avert the spread of infections. Within the workplace it can protect employees, reduce employee anxiety and absenteeism (in the case of COVID-19 self-isolation measures) and shield the business from further damage.
It is also highly visible, so a good means for organisations to reassure employees that their wellbeing is being taken seriously.
It can also compliment other initiatives. For example, by pinpointing an area where the virus may be present, special cleaning arrangements can be applied.
Will any contact tracing App work?
The emphasis of many contact tracing solutions (such as NHS CV19 App or Google Apple virus contact tools) is tracing within the national populous. Other drawbacks include:
- smartphone aligned solutions and can be unreliable where:
- organisations / facilities prohibit the use of smartphones
- legacy hardware is unable to run the necessary apps
- people may not own a smartphone or simply refuse to use one
- tracing data and administration will be centralised and unavailable to organisations to utilised for supporting initiatives, e.g. predictive cleaning, etc.
Tracing for organisations
notiria is delighted to add Microshare’s Universal Contact Tracing solution to its product portfolio.
Suitable for large organisation it can be quickly deployed by non-technical staff and is not dependent on personal devices such as smartphones.
How it works
- Employees, tenants or others at risk are issued simple Bluetooth-enabled badges, keyrings or wristbands.
- Devices that come within close proximity to another such devices, record the “encounter” which is uploaded regularly to a secure, central database.
- Responsible, appointed delegates can retrospectively trace the movements of anyone that develops symptoms and alert those they have encountered of exposure and precautionary measures.
Highlights
- Proven industry-standard hardware
- Incorporates secure networks (LoRaWAN®), data management systems and dashboards
- Rapid delivery (i.e. days)
- GDPR compliant / no PII information is stored
- Data delivery regulated to ensure delivery to only the right people at the right time
- Secure database – searchable, auditable and available for trend analytics.
About notiria
Universal Contact Tracing is one of many solutions notiria provides to help organisations with the challenge of COVID-19, including assistance with:
- people movement, preserving social distancing and mitigating areas of over crowding
- their office space design, incorporating immerging best practices such as “The 6 feet rule”
- environmental safety measures such as monitoring air quality, filtration, etc.
- office hygiene and cleaning practices
- monitoring staff well-being.
Find out more by: email info@notiria.com or visit https://notiria.com/contact-us/