Key Resource Links:
Business-specific Guidance:
- VT Dept. of Health COVID-19 Fact Sheet for Food and Lodging Businesses
- CDC Interim Guidance for Businesses and Employers
- OSHA/HHS Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19
- COVID-19 Employers Back to Business Action Plan
- COVID-19 Employers Back to Isolation Action Plan
- Attorney General's Workplace Guidance for COVID-19
- City Services Available to Local Businesses
- Guidance for Lodging, Accomodation and Resorts
- US Senate Small Business Guidance to CARES Act
Summary of Key Guidance Strategies
CDC and state-level guidance are recommending that all employers take active steps to plan, prepare, and respond to the COVID-19 outbreak by:
- Encouraging, and requiring where possible, sick employees to stay home, avoiding close contact with people who are sick, and sending sick employees home as soon as possible.
- Emphasizing respiratory etiquette and hand hygiene:
- Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
- Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.
- Perform routine environmental cleaning – regularly (2x/day) clean and disinfect frequently touched and widely accessible objects and surfaces (e.g. doorknobs, restrooms, break rooms, reception areas. See more at: CDC Environmental Cleaning and Disinfection Recommendations
- Advise employees before traveling to take certain steps:
- Consult CDC Travel Advisories
- Review CDC Travel FAQ’s
- Anticipate the possibility of recommended or required post-trip self-quarantine recommendations
- Explore extended telework arrangements and flexible work hours (when feasible), and what necessary equipment, access permissions, and workplace policies are necessary
- Evaluate sick leave and other HR policies to offer flexible for staff who may need to stay home due to school/childcare dismissals or stay home if they or a family-member is sick.
- Contact your insurance company to understand your coverage for business interruption
- Identify critical job roles and functions. Plan out business operations with less staff or interruptions in functions. Consider cross-training personnel to perform essential functions.
- Plan communication strategies with staff and business partners to share information and updates, and to reduce fear and misinformation.
- Consider providing delivery or in-home services if applicable
- How to implement social distancing measures, e.g.:
- Spacing workers at the worksite (~6-feet)
- Staggering work and break schedules
- Decreasing social contacts in the workplace (limit in-person meetings)
- All break areas should accommodate social distancing with regular disinfection of all eating surfaces
- Closely monitor inventories of critical supplies and plan for delayed deliveries or availability
- Consider cancelling large work-related gatherings (e.g., staff meetings, after-work functions)
- Consider cancelling non-essential work travel and events.
Local Businesses
Local businesses are key partners in helping to slow the spread of COVID-19 by taking active and immediate measures to protect employees and customers, and should develop and implement a response plan that includes objectives and measures that:
- Reduce exposure and transmission among staff, customers, and visitors
- Consider specific measures to protect those who are at higher risk for adverse health complications
- Anticipate disruption and plans to maintain business operations
- Minimize the adverse effects on other entities in their supply chains
Local businesses should regularly communicate with their employees and customers about what they are doing to respond to this outbreak. The Ctiy is working to identify all of the possible local, state, and federal resources that could be re-purposed or otherwise made available to support employees and employers plan, prepare and respond to COVID-19. We expect to have a working list in the coming week.
