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COVID-19: CDC Updates Guidance for Office Buildings
Practical Law Legal Update w-025-8529 (Approx. 4 pages)
COVID-19: CDC Updates Guidance for Office Buildings
by Practical Law Real Estate
| Published on 04 Jun 2020 • USA (National/Federal) |
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published new guidance for office building employers, building owners, building managers, and building operations specialists who are preparing office buildings to resume operations. The guidance builds from CDC’s Interim Guidance for Businesses and Employers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently published COVID-19 Employer Information for Office Buildings, which provides guidance for office building employers, building owners, building managers, and building operations specialists who are preparing office buildings to resume operations. The guidance builds from CDC’s Interim Guidance for Businesses and Employers.
Evaluate the Building
Before resuming operations, the CDC recommends evaluating the building and its mechanical and life safety systems to ensure it is ready for occupancy by:
- Ensuring that the ventilation systems operate properly, including properly restarting the HVAC systems.
- Increasing circulation of outdoor air as much as possible by opening windows and doors, using fans, and other methods.
- Checking for hazards associated with prolonged facility shutdown and taking appropriate remedial actions. Such hazards may include:
Conduct a Hazard Assessment
The CDC recommends conducting a thorough hazard assessment to identify potential workplace hazards that could increase risks for COVID-19 transmission by:
- Identifying the hazards.
- Identifying interim control measures.
- Prioritizing the hazards for control.
The CDC also recommends identifying work and common areas where employees could come within six feet of others, including:
- Meeting rooms.
- Break rooms.
- The cafeteria.
- Locker rooms.
- Check-in areas.
- Waiting areas.
- Entry and exit routes.
Develop Hazard Controls
The CDC recommends a variety of engineering controls that office building employers, building owners, building managers, and building operations specialists can take to isolate workers from the hazard, including:
- Modifying or adjusting seats, furniture, and workstations to maintain social distancing of six feet between employees.
- Installing transparent shields or other physical barriers where possible to separate employees and visitors where social distancing is not an option.
- Arranging reception or other communal seating area chairs by turning, draping (covering chair with tape or fabric so seats cannot be used), spacing, or removing chairs to maintain social distancing.
- Physically separating employees in all areas of the facilities including work areas, meeting rooms, break rooms, parking lots, entrance and exit areas, and locker rooms.
- Using signs, tape marks, or other visual cues such as decals or colored tape on the floor, placed six feet apart, to indicate where to stand when physical barriers are not possible.
- Replacing high-touch communal items, including coffee pots, water coolers, and bulk snacks, with alternatives, including pre-packaged, single-serving items.
- Taking steps to improve ventilation in the building, including:
- increasing the percentage of outdoor air (e.g., using economizer modes of HVAC operations) potentially as high as 100%;
- increasing total airflow supply to occupied spaces, if possible;
- disabling demand-control ventilation (DCV) controls that reduce air supply based on temperature or occupancy;
- considering natural ventilation (i.e., opening windows if possible and safe to do so) to increase outdoor air dilution of indoor air when environmental conditions and building requirements allow;
- improving central air filtration;
- increasing air filtration to as high as possible (MERV 13 or 14) without significantly diminishing design airflow;
- inspecting filter housing and racks to ensure appropriate filter fit and checking for ways to minimize filter bypass;
- considering running the building ventilation system even during unoccupied times to maximize dilution ventilation;
- generating clean-to-less-clean air movement by re-evaluating the positioning of supply and exhaust air diffusers or dampers and adjusting zone supply and exhaust flow rates to establish measurable pressure differentials; and
- having staff work in areas served by “clean” ventilation zones that do not include higher-risk areas such as visitor reception or exercise facilities (if open).
- Considering using portable high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) fan/filtration systems to help enhance air cleaning (especially in higher risk areas).
- Ensuring exhaust fans in restroom facilities are functional and operating at full capacity when the building is occupied.
- Considering using ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) as a supplement to help inactivate the virus.
Practical Implications
This guidance will assist office building employers, building owners, building managers, and building operations specialists to safely reopen their buildings as many states and municipalities continue their reopening processes.
For additional information related to property operations for building owners during the COVID-19 pandemic, see COVID-19: Property Operations Crisis Management Checklist (Office/Retail) and COVID-19: Property Operations Crisis Management Checklist (Multifamily, Condominium and Cooperative).
For a collection of resources related to COVID-19, pandemics, and business interruption content, see Real Estate Global Coronavirus Toolkit.