What You Need to Know-Week of July 27th

In this Update:

1. Essential Worker Safety and Support: Keeping Employees Safe

2. Information you Need: Mental Health during a Pandemic

3. Mask Up and Make a Difference: Wearing and Caring for your Face Covering

4. COVID-19 and Kids: Update on Child Transmission

1. Essential Worker Safety and Support: Keeping Employees Safe

Essential workers who must return to in-person jobs are at higher risk of contracting COVID-19 due to increased contact with others. Scientific studies have shown that a large percentage of COVID-19 cases were likely contracted at work. Therefore, teleworking is the safest option, especially for employees that belong to a high risk group for COVID-19, but it is not always possible. If employees must return to in-person employment, follow these recommendations to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread in the workplace.

What your EMPLOYER can do to protect YOU while at work:

SUGGESTED WORKPLACE MANDATES

✓ IMPLEMENT DAILY HEALTH SCREENINGS
Have employees take their temperature and report if they are having symptoms before arriving at work each day. If they do report symptoms, have them stay home.
✓ IMPLEMENT PHYSICAL DISTANCING PROTOCOLS
Employers may add stickers or markings on the floor to indicate 6 feet separation.
Space out workspaces / work areas by 6 feet.
✓ IMPLEMENT SANITIZING PROTOCOLS
Employers may install hand sanitizing / washing stations, and increase workplace sanitizing practices.
✓ IMPLEMENT TESTING MANDATES 
If an employee has been exposed to COVID-19, or are showing symptoms of the virus, mandate that they get tested (at least 4-5 days after their exposure).
✓ PROVIDE FACE COVERINGS FOR EMPLOYEES
Employees may have difficulty obtaining face coverings. It is especially important to provide face coverings to employees whenever possible. Supplying 2-3 cloth face coverings that can be washed, instead of disposable face masks is highly recommended.
✓ MANDATE FACE COVERINGS IN THE WORKPLACE
This will ensure that employees will follow the protocol and wear a face covering while in the workplace.
If employees wear disposable masks, be sure that they are disposed of properly. 
✓ REDUCE TRAVEL
If an employees position requires travelling, consider limiting this for the time being.

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

✓ INSTALL PROTECTION SCREENS, IF POSSIBLE AND RELEVANT
Installing protection screens is important if the employees have regular contact with the public.
✓ STAGGER BREAKS
Space out breaks for eating and resting so that the least amount of people are in the same area.
✓ CLOSE OFF COMMON SPACES
This will reduce congregation of multiple people, where COVID-19 is more likely to spread. 
✓ IMPROVE BUILDING VENTILATION
If possible, improving ventilation within the building will reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread while indoors. Employers may install fans, or increase outdoor air circulation.

BEHAVIOR

✓ EDUCATE EMPLOYEES ON COVID-19 PRECAUTIONS
Employers should provide employees with information about how to prevent COVID-19 at home. For daily precautions to take, please visit this link. 
✓ AVOID PERSONAL ITEM SHARING AMONGST EMPLOYEES
Whenever possible, avoid sharing items amongst employees. If this is unavoidable, ensure that the equipment and/or personal items have been properly sanitized after each use.

If you believe that your employer is not taking necessary precautions to protect employees at your place of work, you can file a complaint through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or you may contact your county’s health department.

2. Information You Need: Mental Health during a Pandemic

Mental health concerns such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance abuse are on the rise in Arizona and throughout the United States. According to a poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation in April, roughly half (45%) of Americans reported that the pandemic is negatively impacting their mental health. David Sbarra, a University of Arizona psychologist, answered questions on how the pandemic may be impacting mental health. Visit this link for more information. 

A pandemic presents us all with many unknowns and uncertainty. Further, isolation, trauma, and other stressors (e.g., financial) associated with the COVID-19 pandemic can be harmful to mental health and overall wellbeing.  Prioritizing mental health is always important, but is especially crucial under the current circumstances with many people experiencing grief at the loss of community, employment, or other significant life changes. Remember to check on yourself, your family, and friends as we all try to navigate these unprecedented times together. 

It is important to remember that stress due to the pandemic continues to affect people in different ways and to varying degrees. Groups that are more vulnerable to stress during a crisis include: 

• Essential workers (including frontline health workers)
• Children and young adults
• Those belonging to certain racial and ethnic minority groups
• People with existing mental health conditions or substance use disorders 
• People with underlying medical conditions
• Socially isolated individuals (including those who live alone)
• Individuals with disabilities
• Those experiencing changes in employment
• People experiencing homelessness
• Individuals living in group settings
• People lacking access to information in their primary language
• Those without access to healthcare or health services

Be sure to also watch for mental health warning signs in yourself and others. These can include excessive worrying or fear, feeling sad or low, and recent changes in habits or behaviors (sleeping, eating, socializing, mood). For more mental health warning signs, please visit this link.

Below are resources for addressing mental health concerns:

• If you feel that you or another person is in immediate danger because of their mental distress, call 911. 
• In March, Arizona launched a 2-1-1 hotline to provide statewide COVID-19 counseling.

3. Mask Up and Make a Difference: Wearing and Caring for your Face Covering

Wearing a face covering is for the protection of others. Using and caring for your face covering properly, however, is for YOUR protection. 

Face coverings absorb your respiratory droplets (think of them like a sponge!), and those respiratory droplets may carry COVID-19 if you have been exposed, so handle face coverings with extra care to avoid spreading the virus to your hands and face. COVID-19 has been found to stay on surgical masks for up to seven days, so all face coverings should be cleaned regularly or thrown away if disposable.

4. COVID-19 and Kids: Update on Child Transmission

Guest contribution from Dr. Kacey Ernst, an epidemiologist at the University of Arizona.

Additional information is being collected on the potential for children to transmit SARS-CoV-2:

Children older than one appear to be less likely to become seriously ill from COVID-19. However, this does not mean they cannot get infected. One of the current questions is how much kids can transmit the virus. There are a few new studies and outbreaks that indicate children can indeed transmit the virus fairly well: 

• Summer camps in Georgia, Kansas and Texas, have reported many children (7-18 years old) becoming infected. These reports have not been investigated and published thoroughly, but since these are overnight camps, there is likely to be close contact between the children and transmission among the kids cannot be discounted. 
• A study out of Korea tracked the contacts of nearly 6000 confirmed cases, including children. The study concluded that children aged between 10-19 appeared to be more likely to transmit to household contacts (moderate sample size) and those aged 0-9 years were less likely (but the sample size was quite small). Although the study had some limitations, the conclusions indicate some level of transmission from children, especially older children.

More research is needed on children’s ability to transmit SARS-CoV-2, but there is building evidence that children, especially children over the age of 10, can spread the virus more easily than was previously thought.

The next update will cover depression. If you would like to learn more about this and other topics related to COVID-19 in Arizona, please complete next week’s AZCOVIDTXT survey that you will receive via text in about a week.