Since late February, China has been working to resume a more normal level of societal and economic activity. At the same time, strict precautions have been taken in the workplace. I have listed some of China’s practices below, which might be useful to Italian friends.
According to the requirements of the Shanghai government , enterprises should make the following preparations before resuming work.
(1) Make sure there is adequate protective equipment (disinfectants, medical masks, thermometers, gloves, tissues, etc.).
(2) Make sure all staff returning to the workplace have not developed symptoms of coronavirus in the past 14 days. If possible, conduct nucleic acid tests for all the returning employees.
(3) If the member of staff has close contact who is unwell with symptoms of coronavirus, he must also stay at home.
(4) Set up a special team to be responsible for epidemic prevention before, during, and after work.
What precautions are needed after resuming work? Zhong Nanshan, head of China’s COVID-19 expert team, gave the following suggestions .
(1) Transportation: Reduce the use of public transportation. Walking, cycling, and driving private cars are highly recommended.
(2) Public areas: Public areas should be cleaned and disinfected every day, and regularly ventilated. The temperature should be measured at the entrance, people who exceed 37.3 degrees Celsius should return home or get medical treatment.
(3) Meeting room: Reduce the number of concentrated meetings. Even if a meeting is necessary, participants must wear masks and ensure that people are separated by more than one meter. The venue and equipment should be disinfected after the meeting.
(4) Office: Ventilate the office at least three times a day. Wash hands frequently, and drink plenty of water. If there are multiple people in the office, you need to wear a mask and use a cup with a lid.
(5) Canteen: People should eat in divided periods to avoid crowds. Take-away food is highly recommended. Avoid eating raw or undercooked food. Pay attention to keeping a distance from others during meals, and wash hands carefully before and after meals.
(6) Elevator: Avoid taking elevators unless necessary. Wear a mask when entering the elevator, and wash hands after pressing the buttons.
The resumption of work is carried out step by step. Take Hubei province as an example , different districts are rated as high, medium, and low risk areas. In high-risk areas, only those enterprises that are critical to economic and social activity can resume work. In medium-risk areas, important enterprises in agriculture, manufacturing, construction, software service, and financial sector can gradually resume work. In low-risk areas, all market entities not on the restricted list can resume work. The restricted list mainly includes theaters, clubs, auditoriums, gyms, bookstores, and cinemas, etc. These businesses are most likely to cause cluster infections, and will not open until the epidemic is completely over.
Author: Lang Kun, Ph.D. Candidate from Tsinghua University in Beijing
原文详见：Le precauzioni prese in Cina per tornare al lavoro（中国的复工实践），意大利百科全书研究院网站，2020-04-23