Home > COVID-19 prevention and control health management of practitioners

The health of practitioners is fundamental to preventing COVID-19 from polluting cold chain food. Producers and operators involved in the production, loading,  unloading, transportation, storage, sales and catering services of cold-chain food shall, in accordance with the COVID-19 prevention and control requirements, timely adjust and update the health management system for employees, improve COVID-19 prevention and control measures, and ensure strict personal protection for employees.

Establish health registration system for employees on duty:

Cold chain food producers and operators should do well in the 14 days’ travel and health status registration of employees (including new recruits and temporary staff), and establish health cards for the workers on the posts. The newly recruited staff need to issue COVID-19 vaccination certificates, nucleic acid negative tests within 48 hours, health codes and travel codes are not abnormal, and monitor the turnover and health of employees.

Daily health monitoring of employees:

Cold-chain food producers and operators shall strengthen personnel access management and health monitoring, and establish a record of the health status of all employees (including 10 main symptoms: (fever, dry cough, fatigue, decreased sense of smell and taste, stuffy nose, runny nose, sore throat, conjunctivitis, myalgia and diarrhea) and risk contact information reporting system, set up temperature measurement points at the entrance of food production and business areas, implement prevention and control measures such as registration, temperature measurement, disinfection, health code check, implement the “green code”on duty system.

Nucleic acid testing of employees:

Nucleic acid testing is an important means of early detection of infection. Cold-chain food practitioners should be tested in accordance with the COVID-19 Prevention and Control Protocol. The frequency of nucleic acid testing should be appropriately increased for personnel at high-risk positions in key places and links.

Personnel in high-risk positions include but are not limited to the following personnel: porters, loaders and unloaders, sorting worker, disinfectors, forklifts, warehouse managers, sampling personnel, garbage cleaners and other personnel in high-risk positions who directly contact imported cold chain food without preventive disinfection for the first time in central supervision warehouse and first station cold storage; slow front-end personnel, such as porters, packers, etc in imported cold chain food
production and processing enterprises.

High frequency nucleic acid testing shall be carried out for personnel in high-risk posts, and the specific frequency can be appropriately adjusted on the basis of risk research and judgment according to local conditions. In principle, reasonable arrangements should be made to ensure that nucleic acid tests are carried out by people of the same category every day.

Registration and management of personnel from outside:

Try to reduce the entry of personnel from outside into the production and operation area as much as possible. If it is necessary to enter, it is necessary to register their work units, their health status and people in contact with epidemic area, and implement measures such as health code and travel code inspection and registration, temperature measurement and personal protection (such as wearing masks). When vehicles entering and leaving, the personnel in the vehicle shall not leave the vehicle unless necessary. If it is really necessary to leave the vehicle, it shall be managed according to the above requirements. The guard on duty, staff and drivers shall avoid unnecessary contact.

Hygienic requirements for employees:

1. Healthy work. Ensure good physical condition before work, and report health information to the producer and operator, take the initiative to accept the temperature test of the producer and operator, in case of fever, dry cough, fatigue and other symptoms, immediately take the initiative to leave, and seek medical treatment in time.
2. Do a good job of personal protection. Employees shall correctly wear masks, gloves and uniform in the workshop. Work clothes shall be kept clean and tidy, cleaned regularly and disinfected when necessary. Employees in special posts (fresh slaughter, segmentation workshop, etc.) shall wear waterproof aprons, rubber gloves, etc. in addition to work clothes. It is recommended that food practitioners wear disposable gloves, but they must change them frequently, and wash their hands between changes and when they are not wearing gloves. To avoid secondary contamination of protective products, gloves must be changed after non food related activities (such as opening / closing doors and emptying dustbins by hand).
3. Pay attention to personal hygiene. Cover your nose and mouth with tissue when sneezing or coughing, or use elbow and arm to cover. Do not spit everywhere and pay attention to hygiene when blowing your nose. Try to avoid touching the mouth, eyes and nose with hands.
4. Improve hand hygiene. When handling goods, or when hands touch shelves, handrails and other public objects, wash hands with hand sanitizer or soap in running water, or rub hands with quick-drying hand disinfectant.

Establish health abnormality reporting procedures:

Once employees find that they and the people living together have suspected symptoms such as fever, dry cough and fatigue, they should report to the top management of production and operation in time, and report level by level or directly according to the situation. Once the producers and operators find that the employees have the above-mentioned abnormal health symptoms, regardless of their health status, they shall take effective measures to quickly exclude themselves and the employees in close
contact from the food working environment. In areas with high risk of COVID-19 transmission, it is recommended that healthy employees be required to report “zero” in accordance with the prevention and control regulations of local authorities.

Procedures for employees to return to work:

According to the registration and health records of personnel working in the production and operation areas, the treatment and recovery status of employees with abnormal health, physical discomfort, suspected or COVID-19 infection (patients or asymptomatic infections) shall be tracked in time, and the conditions for their return to work shall be assessed scientifically after their recovery. Isolation can be lifted for confirmed COVID-19 cases whose symptoms subside and whose two PCR nucleic acid
tests are negative at least 24 hours apart. Practitioners who are close contacts of COVID-19 patients should also meet the above control requirements before returning to work.

Strengthen prevention and control knowledge publicity:

Various forms of health education are carried out to guide practitioners to master the knowledge and skills related to the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 and other respiratory infectious diseases, develop good hygiene practices, and strengthen the awareness of self-protection.

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