PRP has been working with industry partners including the GCA to ensure that we are all implementing the proper safety measures and are in compliance with the CDC Guidelines as well as with the State/County orders/rules (social distancing and mitigative hygiene). Please review the COVID-19 Job Site Practices below: 

All contractors should incorporate COVID-19 transmission and prevention into all job hazard analyses (JHAs) and pre- task safety planning for all aspects of the work. This tool is provided solely as a guideline for contractors and is not to be relied upon to prevent the spread or transmission of COVID-19, or prevent a safety violation from being issued by a jurisdictional authority. This is not legal advice. Contractors should continually evaluate the specific hazards at their job sites along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations to determine the most appropriate job hazard analysis for the project/task as it relates to the spread and/or transmission of COVID-19.

Preventing Against COVID-19

If you have not had a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19 in your workplace or on your jobsite, you are encouraged to take the following steps:

• Implement a policy for early reporting of signs or symptoms of COVID-19. Doing so can assist with preventing the spread of the disease if the employee is a confirmed case.
  • If an employee displays signs or symptoms of COVID-19, immediately remove them from the workplace or job site.
• Educate your employees on how to protect themselves as outlined by the CDC.
• Educate your employees on the signs and symptoms of COVID-19.
• Practice social distancing (maintaining a safe distance of at least six (6) feet from others) as much as practical.
• Require sick employees to stay at home.

Worker Personal Responsibilities

• Employees need to take steps to protect themselves. Refer to CDC guideline: How to Protect Yourself.
• If employees have symptoms of acute respiratory illness (i.e., fever, cough, shortness of breath), they must stay home and not come to work until free of symptoms for at least 72 hours, without the use of medicine, or as recommended by the CDC. Refer to CDC guideline: What To Do if You Are Sick.
• Employees must notify their supervisors and stay home if they are sick. They must consult medical attention if they develop symptoms of acute respiratory illness. Refer to CDC guideline: What To Do if You AreSick.

Social Distancing

• Work in occupied areas should be limited to only those tasks that are strictly necessary.
  • Limit physical contact with others. Direct employees to increase personal space (to at least 6 feet, where possible).
  • When possible, limit out-of-office meetings and replace them with phone or onlinemeetings.
  • Take breaks and lunch in shifts to reduce the size of the group in the lunch area at any one time to less than 10 people.
  • Subcontractor foremen and project managers should communicate with their general contractors about prohibiting large gatherings (currently no more than 10 people) on the job site, such as the all-hands meeting and all-hands lunches.

General Job Site / Office Practices

• Employers should reference the CDC’s Interim Guidance for Businesses and Employers. Employers should check CDC recommendations frequently and update JHAs and safety plans accordingly.
• Employers should consider designating a representative to monitor for signs of illness in the workplace, and if someone is showing symptoms, ask them to leave. They should NOT be allowed to enter any occupied area before leaving.
• Employers should consider designating a representative to take employees’ temperatures with a digital forehead thermometer that is disinfected appropriately between applications. Note that some people with COVID-19 may not have a fever, so this should not be the only means of detection.
• Employers should ask the following questions to all employees, visitors and vendors prior to allowing access to the workplace and/or job site. The number of visitors to the job site, including the trailer or office, should be restricted.

1. Have you traveled to an area with known local or international spread of COVID-19 in the past 14 days? Yes No
2. Have you, or anyone in your family, come into close contact (within 6 feet) with someone who has a suspected or confirmed COVID – 19 diagnosis in the past 14 days either at home or on a job site, etc.? Yes No
3. Have you had a fever (greater than 100.4 F or 38.0 C) OR symptoms of lower respiratory illness such as cough, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing in the past 14 days? Yes No
4. Are you currently experiencing a fever (greater than 100.4 F or 38.0 C) OR symptoms of lower respiratory illness such as cough, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing? Yes No

*NOTE: If an employee, visitor or vendor answer ‘Yes’ to any of the above questions, ask them to leave the workplace or jobsite immediately and seek medical evaluation.

• If an employee is confirmed to have COVID-19, inform fellow employees of possible exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace, but maintain confidentiality as required by the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). Ask the affected employee to identify those other employees whom he/she came into contact with before the employee departs. Employees who worked in close proximity (3- to 6-feet) to a coworker with confirmed COVID-19 should also be sent home and referred to CDC guidance for how to conduct a risk assessment. Additionally, you should strongly consider following the suggestions for Responding to a Suspected or Confirmed Positive Case of COVID-19 on pages 4 – 5 of this document.
• Attendance at safety meetings should be communicated verbally and the foreman/superintendent will sign in each attendee. Contractors should not pass around a sign-in sheet or mobile device (iPad, tablet, or mobile phone) to confirm attendance.
  • iPad and mobile device use should be limited to a single user.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

• Gloves: Gloves should be worn at all times while on site. The type of glove worn should be appropriate to the task. If gloves are not typically required for the task, then any type of glove is acceptable, including latex gloves.
• Eye protection: Eye protection should be worn all times while on site.
• Masks: CDC is additionally advising the use of simple cloth face coverings to slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others.  Cloth face coverings fashioned from household items or made at home from common materials at low cost can be used as an additional, voluntary public health measure. The cloth face coverings recommended are not surgical masks or N-95 respirators.  Those are critical supplies that must continue to be reserved for healthcare workers and other medical first responders, as recommended by current CDC guidance. (Updated as of 4/15/2020) https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/diy-cloth-face-coverings.html

Sanitation and Cleanliness

• Promote frequent and thorough hand washing with soap and running water for at least 20 seconds. Employers should also provide hand sanitizer when hand washing facilities are not available. Refer to CDC guideline: When and How to Wash Your Hands.
  • All workers should wash hands often, especially before eating, smoking, or drinking, and after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing. Workers should refrain from touching their face.
  • All sites should have hand washing stations readily available to all workers on site. If you have a large site, get a hand washing station from your portable job site toilet provider.
  • Providing hand sanitizer is acceptable in the interim between availability of hand washing facilities.
  • All workers should wash hands before and after entering any unit, as well as regularly and periodically throughout the day.
  • Some job sites may have access to hot water for hand washing. If this is an option, please get permission from the facility owner to use their sink and disinfect frequently.
  • If on a remote project, fill an Igloo-type water cooler with water (hot water, if available) and label “hand washing only.” This is a good option for vehicles as well. The CDC has posters and fact sheets available for posting.
  • Subcontractor foremen and project managers shall communicate with their general contractor as to what steps the general contractor is taking to provide adequate sanitary/handwashing facilities on the project.
• Disinfect frequently touched surfaces within the workplace multiple times each day. Refer to CDC guideline: Clean & Disinfect.
  • Disinfectant wipes should be available and used to wipe down any surfaces (doorknobs, keyboards, remote controls, desks) that are commonly touched periodically each day.
  • Portable job site toilets should be cleaned by the leasing company at least twice per week (disinfected on the inside). Double check that hand sanitizer dispensers are filled—if not, fill them. Frequently touched items (i.e., door pulls and toilet seats) should be disinfected frequently, ideally after each use.
  • Job site offices/trailers and break/lunchrooms must be cleaned at least twice per day.
  • Employees performing cleaning will be issued proper PPE, such as nitrile gloves and eye or face protection as needed.
  • Maintain Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) of all disinfectants on site.
• Employers should provide tissues and encourage employees to cover their noses and mouths with a tissue (or elbow or shoulder if a tissue is not available) when coughing or sneezing. Wash your hands after each time you cough, sneeze, or blow your nose, and any time before touching your face or food. Refer to CDC guideline: Coughing & Sneezing.
  • Any trash from the trailers or the job site should be changed frequently by someone wearing gloves. After changing the trash, the employee should throw the gloves away and wash their hands.

Workers Entering Occupied Buildings and Homes

Many contractors and service technicians perform construction and maintenance activities within occupied homes, office buildings, and other establishments. Although these are not large job sites, these work locations present their own unique hazards with regards to COVID-19 exposures. Plumbers, electricians, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) technicians are examples of these types of workers. All such workers should evaluate the specific hazards when determining best practices related to COVID-19.

• Require the customer to clean and sanitize the work area prior to the workers’ arrival on site.
• Technicians should sanitize the work areas themselves upon arrival, throughout the workday, and immediately before departure. Refer to CDC guideline: Clean & Disinfect.
• Require customers to keep household pets away from work area.
• Ask that occupants keep a personal distance of 10 feet at minimum.
• Do not accept payments on site (no cash or checks exchanged). Require electronic payments over the phone or online.
• Workers should wash hands immediately before starting and after completing the work. Refer to CDC guideline: When and How to Wash Your Hands.

Responding to a Suspected or Confirmed Positive Case of COVID-19

If you have a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19, you are encouraged to take the following steps:

• Remove the infected, or potentially infected, employee from the workplace or job site. Before the employee departs, ensure you have a full list of affected employees who should be sent home (i.e., individuals who worked in close proximity (three to six feet) with them in the previous 14 days). For suspected cases, take the same precautions and treat the situation as if the suspected case is a confirmed case for purposes of sending home potentially infected employees.
• Contact the local public health department. If you have a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19, you should contact the local public health department to report the situation and to get any advice from the department on steps to take to handle the situation.
• Ensure a medical evaluation is completed. The employee should contact their primary care physician to discuss the symptoms that they are experiencing and follow any orders given.
• Investigate. Just as you would investigate a workplace injury (i.e., slip and fall), you must do the same for COVID-19, suspected or confirmed cases, and document your investigation. Investigating will also assist with the determination of work-relatedness of the confirmed case or exposure.
  • COVID-19 can be a recordable illness if a worker is infected as a result of an event or exposure in the work environment. However, employers are only responsible for recording cases of COVID-19 if all of the following are met:
    • The case is a confirmed case of COVID-19 (see CDC information on persons under investigation and presumptive positive and laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19);
    • The case is work-related, as defined by 29 CFR 1904.5; and
    • The case involves one or more of the general recording criteria set forth in 29 CFR 1904.7 (e.g., medical treatment beyond first-aid, days away from work).
• Identify corrective actions. These items will include what measures should be put into place to prevent further spreading of the virus on the job site or in the workplace as well as future occurrences. Such measures may include the cleaning and sanitizing of the work area(s) and/or tools (hand and power) as well as reinforcing the guidelines for prevention outlined by CDC with others in the workplace and on the job site.
• Establish a procedure to follow up. Communicate with both affected and non-affected employees on the status of the suspected or confirmed COVID-19 case, but do not communicate the name of affected individuals or specific medical diagnoses. Where there is a confirmed case of COVID-19, affected employees should be notified and encouraged to seek medical attention. If a suspected case tests negative, affected employees should be notified and encouraged to return work.