How Should Small Businesses Help Prevent the Spread of COVID-19

While many people may have become more accustomed to life in the midst of a global pandemic, the rise of the Omicron variant has people rethinking the best ways to stay safe. For small businesses, Omicron means that COVID-19 protection for their customers and employees is once again an incredibly important point to consider. Let’s take a look at how small businesses can act to help prevent the spread of the virus. 

Wash and Sanitize Hands Often

An important first step to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is to wash and sanitize hands often. Employees should be sure to wash their hands frequently, particularly those that handle things such as food. This paired with not touching your face will help mitigate the ability of the virus to spread. Additionally, small businesses should be sure to have plenty of hand sanitizer on hand for employees and for customers. 

Encourage Mask Wearing

Wearing masks has been proven to be an effective way of virus protection. Requiring or encouraging customers to wear their masks is one effective way to help keep people safe when they come into your business. Businesses should also consider requiring employees to wear masks, especially if they are in close proximity to others. A great way to help encourage mask-wearing is to provide masks. Disposable medical face masks can be provided to customers while businesses could provide N-95 or KN-95 masks to employees. 

Install Protective Guards

Sneeze guards are a great way to further increase COVID-19 protection. Installing these at counters serves to create an important barrier that can prevent the spread of virus particles from one person to another. In fact, many businesses have added these in order to provide greater protection to their customer-facing staff members. This is a relatively inexpensive way to provide excellent virus protection. 

Evaluate Your Policies

Another important way to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 involves assessing your policies, particularly in the wake of a variant that spreads much more easily. Many organizations are requiring employees who show symptoms or who are exposed to someone with COVID-19 to test negative before returning to work This cautious approach can help reduce the likelihood that someone will unknowingly come to work sick. 

Final Thoughts

COVID-19 has definitely shifted how people do business. For small businesses, there are many things that can be done to enhance virus protection. Businesses should always have hand sanitizer on hand and should consider providing masks to customers and employees. Installing physical barriers can also help reduce spread. Taking safeguards to provide COVID-19 protection will also result in generating goodwill by showing customers that you value their safety.