Update: Thursday 09 April 2020
A coronavirus is a type of virus. As a group, coronaviruses are common across the world. This particular coronavirus now has the formal title – COVID-19.
Typical symptoms of coronavirus include fever and a cough that may progress to a severe pneumonia causing shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. Other symptoms include all typical cold and flu symptoms and mild cases may affect the sense of smell and taste.
Since our initial guidance to members early in February, the virus has rapidly spread in the UK, with a large number of confirmed cases in March.
It is now clear that this virus is spreading faster than earlier viruses such as SARS. Deaths from the virus have primarily been older people and people with pre-existing health conditions.
Much like standard flu, the most vulnerable in society are at highest risk.
As media coverage intensifies, and concern over the effects of the virus increases, we have reviewed and updated our guidance. We will continue to do this as Government advice and policy is updated.
Click on the titles below to expand the section
For our guidance on coronavirus and your rights at work, click here
Every year, millions of people in the UK develop the flu.
For most people, this is an unpleasant experience but one that is soon recovered from.
For older people, whose health and immunity may be declining; and people whose health is affected by medical conditions, the risk is much higher as they cannot recover so easily from the virus.
What is new and so dangerous about the COVID-19 virus is that it has never been encountered before.
As such there is no vaccine and no medication that will cure or protect against the virus, though the same medications taken for the flu will help to reduce the symptoms.
The UK Government has advised that when someone has developed symptoms, they should take paracetamol rather than ibuprofen.
As a viral infection, antibiotics will not affect the virus. This new strain of the virus causes severe respiratory diseases, including pneumonia.
COVID-19 appears to spread in a number of ways.
The primary method is the respiratory route – contamination when someone carrying the virus coughs or sneezes.
It was long believed that standing more than 2 metres away from the person coughing or sneezing was a safe distance. As a result, the advice from UK Government is that everyone should practice ‘social distancing’ – remaining 2 metres (6ft) away from other people as far as possible.
Viruses also spread through tiny airborne particles, known as aerosols. These are released from the lungs rather than the nose or throat. These aerosols are invisible, cannot be felt, travel further than the droplets from sneezing or coughing, and can hover in the air for several hours.
This means that surfaces and hands can be contaminated, helping to transmit the virus. This is why hand washing and not touching your face are so important.
The overall risk rating for the UK as a whole has risen to ‘High’. Taking precautions is critically important to reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus.
These are:
On 23rd March, the UK Government updated their advice to employers and the public, and introduced lockdown measures, including:
Other non-work related measures advised by the Government include:
These measures, along with handwashing and ‘Catch It, Bin It, Kill It’, are now the primary way to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
As mentioned above, it is well-established that people above the age of 70, along with those with underlying health conditions, are at higher risk of severe reaction to COVID-19 and should take extra precautions, particularly social distancing as well as shielding where notified by the NHS.
The Government have provided a detailed list of extremely vulnerable and vulnerable people. These are:
Extremely vulnerable
Vulnerable
If you fall into any of the extremely vulnerable category, you must not leave your house for 12 weeks and must stay away from other members of your household if they are still going outside to work or shop.
If you fall under the vulnerable group and are still working, you should inform your employer of your health status immediately. They must perform a risk assessment to assess your likely exposure to COVID-19 and any mitigating control measures that can be enacted, then implement these as soon as possible. They may need to consult occupational health professionals to do this.
This may require you to work from home, stagger working time – arrival and departure - where possible, or change job roles to a non-customer facing role whilst the COVID-19 virus is at large in the population.
If you fall into the above categories and have concerns over the response from your employer, please contact your GMB Regional Organiser for further advice and support.
Self-isolation (also called self-quarantine) is a precautionary measure, where a person who may have the COVID-19 virus stays in a fixed location (usually at home, potentially in their bedroom) away from other people.
Updated guidance from the NHS was published on Thursday 12 March.
The position from government is now to self-isolate if you experience:
A High temperature (37.8ºC or higher)
OR
A continuous cough
On 16th March, the Government announced new guidance where symptoms develop:
If you have to self-isolate, inform your employer immediately.
If you then develop symptoms, ensure that your employer knows this.
Where self-isolation means buying deliveries (takeaway food, online deliveries, etc.) it is important that wherever possible you avoid direct contact with the person making the delivery – arrange for deliveries to be left on doorsteps or outside the room.
Pay online or by leaving payment with family/friends, or even through the letterbox if needed.
Make sure you inform the company you make the purchase from that you are self-isolating.
This is a measure put in place by the Government to protect the most vulnerable people in society, as listed above in the extremely vulnerable category. If you have received a letter from the NHS saying that you come under this category asking you to follow face to face distancing measures, these are:
While the rest of your household are not required to adopt these protective shielding measures for themselves, we would expect them to do what they can to support you in shielding and to stringently follow guidance on social distancing.
If the rest of your household stringently follow advice on social distancing and minimise the risk of spreading the virus within the home by following the advice above, there is no need for them to also shield alongside you.
Where possible, employers should be allowing staff to work from home, as directed by the Government. However, there are many sectors that GMB members work in where workers are required to still work, such as the NHS, ambulance drivers, school workers, airport workers, some cleaners, delivery drivers and supermarket workers to name a few.
These workers may require more specific precautions to be implemented, either because the risk of infection is higher, or because they regularly come into contact with those who are most vulnerable – older people, or people in poor health – or those most likely to spread the virus - children. In such cases, a specific risk assessment for contamination risk should be performed.
This is a COSHH assessment, required under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002.
The primary control measure will be removal from the source of exposure where possible – home working where this is feasible. For most workplaces, allowing workers to follow self-isolation procedures should ensure that only workers who are not an exposure risk attend work.
There will obviously be certain job roles that run the risk of close contact with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 carriers. Where this is the case, personal protective equipment (PPE), particularly the provision of face masks, must be implemented.
Where members are dealing with people who are confirmed to be infected (i.e. to provide care), then the previous advice from Public Health England still applies, and the following PPE is appropriate:
This must all be provided on an individual basis and not for shared use. Contaminated PPE must be cleaned or replaced and not continually used when compromised.
For most job roles, a face mask is not needed, and wearing one could increase the risk of exposure to the virus due to the wearer touching their face more often than usual.
The surgical masks that are often pictured in the media have very little value as a protective measure.
They primarily reduce the amount to which any virus is expelled by a person, rather than preventing exposure from another person.
The most effective widely available face mask is the FFP3 (filtering facepiece respirator level 3), which is the same standard used where the presence of asbestos is suspected.
This will not eliminate exposure to the virus, but reduces the exposure level by up to six times compared to a surgical mask.
There have been many advertisements, particularly on social media, for N95 masks. This is an American standard that is only equivalent to UK FFP2.
The N95 mask is only tested against dry contaminants, whilst FFP3 is tested against wet aerosols. As such the N95 mask is less effective, and FFP3 should be supplied where face masks are required.
The N95 mask is however preferable to surgical masks or no mask at all. This is acceptable if the FFP3 is not available to be provided.
Any mask supplied must have a CE certification mark, which indicates conformity with EU health, safety and environmental protection standards. This should be found either on the mask itself, on the packaging.
All masks must be personal issue only – they must not be shared between workers.
To be effective the mask must fit properly, with a tight seal around the nose and mouth. Most suppliers sell fit-testing kits.
Fitting is critical as gaps around the bridge of the nose and under the chin allow air to leak in, defeating the filtration.
Guidance on face fitting is available from the HSE. The British Safety Industry Federation (BSIF) can provide detailed guidance where large scale fitting is required.
The standard test involves wearing the mask, placing a plastic hood around the head and spraying saccharine solution inside it. If the sweet flavour can be tasted then the mask is not fitting tightly enough.
Apart from ensuring that risk assessments and COSHH assessments are kept up to date, the most important action is to keep all workers updated on actions being taken to reduce risks of exposure in the workplace.
This would include ensuring that all contact numbers and emergency contact details are up to date.
Management training may be needed on the symptoms of COVID-19, and more importantly the actions to be taken where cases are suspected.
This will primarily be ensuring that any worker who suspects that they are infected does not attend the workplace, and self-isolates.
GMB Safety Representatives must be kept informed of all control measures being implemented and there should be mechanisms in place that allow safety representatives to raise concerns with senior managers, health and safety managers and infection control leads on behalf of staff.
The guidance from ACAS for employers and employees is clear on this point:
The workplace's usual sick leave and pay entitlements apply if someone has coronavirus.
Employees should let their employer know as soon as possible if they're not able to go to work.
The employer might need to make allowances if their workplace sickness policy requires evidence from the employee. For example, the employee might not be able to get a sick note (‘fit note’) if they’ve been told to self-isolate.
ACAS guidance on this is also clear.
If an employee is not sick but their employer tells them not to come to work, they should get their usual pay.
Employees are entitled to time off work to help someone who depends on them (a 'dependant') in an unexpected event or emergency. This would apply to situations to do with coronavirus.
For example:
There's no statutory right to pay for this time off, but some employers can and should offer pay. GMB is making this demand on employers to do the right thing.
For Further Information: https://www.acas.org.uk/coronavirus