Advanced Analytics company Empiricai is today urging industry to invest in longer-term, sustainable, and cost-effective safety measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19. As the risk of Covid-19 in the workplace persists, company leaders and safety managers need to think beyond the temporary measures and manual monitoring they put in place for keeping employees safe and workplaces open.
Empiricai’s call for action follows updated guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on close Covid-19 contact. This now states infection can be caused by multiple exposures in a day amounting to 15 minutes in total rather than one continuous 15-minute exposure, as previously believed.
Even if effective vaccines are developed by early next year, it is likely to take more than a year to mass produce, distribute, and administer a vaccine across the country, effectively taking us well into, and possibly beyond, next year’s flu season before we can achieve herd immunity. Even with herd immunity or an effective vaccine in place, the emerging evidence is that COVID-19 antibodies may only last a few months.
As guidance evolves in response to new information, it’s even more important that guidelines are being followed. Management teams need to have greater visibility and control over Covid-19 safety in their offices and sites, across PPE and social distancing. To reduce the spread of infection and monitor risk over time, managers need to continuously measure the effectiveness of safety measures, such as:
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) detection - ensure PPE is worn properly where and when required across the workplace.
- Real-time social distancing - provide a real-time view of social distancing compliance and violations in the workplace.
- Occupancy monitoring - actively avoid workplace overcrowding using heat maps to identify areas of concern or high traffic.
Empiricai CEO, Salman Chaudhary, said “The recent uptick in infections, the new CDC guidance, and the emerging belief that vaccines may only offer seasonal protection, show face masks and social distancing will be needed for much longer than we think. If businesses are to stay open and productive, they will need to put measures in place to protect their employees and keep their workplaces safe, not just today, but well into the future.”
“WorkSafe Analytics provides comprehensive analytics on the effectiveness of safety guidelines and allows industry managers to continuously assess their compliance. With this data, organisations can take specific and targeted actions to keep their employees and workplaces safe.”
Empiricai helps manufacturing workplaces monitor COVID safety guidelines compliance in real-time, reducing the risk of infection in their offices and sites, and preventing closures. Emipiricai’s WorkSafe Analytics leverages Computer Vision AI to enable businesses to ‘see’ and inform about the real risk of infection, that affects productivity and disruption to businesses.