Safely Reopening Schools And Universities
In the fall, some schools and universities will be reopening their doors to students. When schools reopen, it’s extremely important that we mitigate the risk of spreading the COVID-19 virus as much as possible. This will require that everyone involved—students, teachers, and administrators alike—take precautions. When preparing for the reopening of school buildings, consider whether the layout and furniture in your classrooms are conducive to slowing the spread of COVID-19.
Social Distancing
According to CDC mandates, one of the best ways to prevent COVID-19 from spreading is to ensure that people can maintain a physical distance of at least six feet from others. If space allows, arrange desks in a classroom at the proper six feet from one another. Modern Office sells individual workstations that can be placed as far apart as need be to keep students separated. Teachers or administrators should go into their classrooms before the school year starts and measure how many desks they can fit in their room with the proper distance between them.
Installing Sneeze Guards
If the idea of physical distance in a classroom isn’t quite enough to quell your nerves over the potential spread of COVID-19, you’re not alone. According to the CDC, there’s more that can be done to aid in prevention, most notably wearing face masks in public to protect yourself from catching or spreading the airborne virus. Just as a face mask is a physical barrier for your nose and mouth, a sneeze guard—an acrylic panel that sits vertically at the edge of a desk—can be a physical barrier for your workstation. Since the virus is thought to be spread mainly by aerosolized particles emitted when talking, laughing, sneezing, or coughing, using sneeze guards is an excellent way to physically stop these viral particles in their tracks. Modern Office sells sneeze guards that can be placed on the edges of desks and make everyone in the classroom feel more at ease.
Antimicrobial Furniture
Another way to keep class environments as safe as possible is to keep surfaces clean. In addition to through-the-air transmission, the CDC has stated that viral particles can live on surfaces, and if someone comes into contact with a compromised surface, the disease can spread. Antimicrobial furniture can solve this problem—it’s designed with materials that kill viral particles and can be easily wiped clean. If all the furniture in a classroom is cleaned and sanitized regularly, it will not hold onto germs, minimizing the transmission of COVID-19 particles. Check Modern Office for a variety of antimicrobial furniture, including desks, tables, and chairs.
Use Partitions to Safely Divide the Room
Maybe you are in an open classroom with little opportunity for your students to socially distance. A way to solve for this is by splitting your classroom into different sections using portable partitions, which are essentially walls on wheels. If you are interested in enforcing a physical separation of students, portable partitions are a great option. Like sneeze guards, they create a physical barrier that viral particles cannot pass through. By splitting up the classroom with partitions, students will be separated into smaller groups, mitigating the threat of the virus when staying six feet apart isn’t possible. When we reopen schools and universities, we must do it safely. Before reopening school buildings, let Modern Office help you rethink your classroom and minimize the threat of COVID-19 as much as possible.
