COVID-19 Digital Contact Tracing for your Business

Why Canadian Businesses Need the Corona Virus Digital Tracing Tool

As provinces in Canada are being hit with a second wave of the Coronavirus, Canadian business employers are required to screen their workers for COVID-19 symptoms before they are allowed entry into the facilities.

A mandatory COVID-19 screening tool is implemented in various governments in Canada. The questionnaire aims to know if a person has COVID-19 symptoms. It also includes contact tracing or asking if the worker has had contact with anyone who has been confirmed to be positive or is possible to have COVID-19, or who has traveled outside Canada in the past 14 days.

Those who checked “Yes” to at least one question are required to self-isolate and contact their health care providers to be tested for COVID-19.

Through the screening tool, various government offices aim to boost public health protection to prevent further lockdowns as well as establish consistency in terms of COVID-19 guidelines. The screening must be conducted every day for staff, students, contractors and volunteers who enter the workplace facility. Other visitors including delivery and maintenance staff are also required to be screened before they arrive.

Implementation of the COVID-19 Screening Tool

To implement the coronavirus screening tool, employers can choose to implement screening at the entrance of the work facility before the employee enters the building. They could also fill out an online questionnaire a day before coming to work.

Here are the ways Canadian businesses can implement COVID-19 screening tool on their employees:

• Digital tracing – This keeps track of all the survey forms easily. It is also the most environment-friendly method, as it does not require consumption of papers for answering.
• Interview survey – Although this is much easier to implement as you just ask the staff questions when they enter the building, it poses privacy concerns for employees as other people could easily hear their answers.
• Paper survey – A paper trail is easy to keep track of. However, it can also pose privacy issues as there is a risk of other people reading the answers. It could also take time to automate and streamline the survey questionnaires.

Why Digital Tracing is Recommended

Out of the three screening tools for COVID-19, digital tracing is the most secure and recommended method. Below are some of the advantages of this contact tracing method:

1. It has the ability to ensure data privacy and security. This is essential, as the public needs to know that their sensitive information will not be leaked to other people.
2. It has the operational capacity to receive important info from the public health authorities such as provincial or city public health departments, and other health authority agencies.
3. It can allow identification and documentation of the contacts of clients with COVID-19 either through inputs from public health authorities or through reporting from the users.
4. It has the capability to give alerts to clients and contacts regarding their exposure and the time window when exposure may have taken place. This may be automated or done manually and can be sent through emails, voice messages and SMS.
5. It can conduct surveys regarding the symptoms of those with COVID-19 and can relay instructions on how to monitor their symptoms, as well as gather reports about critical information every day. The data gathered will then be relayed to the contact tracing team at public health authorities.
6. It can send messages of self-quarantine, social distancing and other safety protocols to contacts that have been identified with COVID-19. It can also relay important health measures from the government.
7. Follow-ups and requests for information can be automated by the system to identified contacts.
8. It has the ability to generate and view individual and collective contact tracing reports.

Conclusion

Accuracy is critical in today’s struggle to defeat the world pandemic crisis. The health and security of a company’s workers should be a top priority which is why government officials are highly recommending the installation of each organization’s own digital contact tracing management system. If you are a Canadian employer and you need help in setting up your COVID-19 screening tool, contact us and get a free consultation!