Working from home must remain the default for all businesses where feasible. This, along with video and tele-conferencing instead of physical meetings, would allow us to keep safe by keeping COVID-19 transmissions low.

If you must go back to the workplace, however, here are five top tips for keeping safe:

1)          Stagger work and break hours

Adopt safe management measures at your workplace to ensure a safe environment for you and your colleagues. This includes staggered work and break hours such as shift or split team arrangements. On top of these measures, you should avoid mixing between teams. These allow for the reduction of physical contact, lowering the likelihood of workplace transmissions.

2)          Avoid socialising with colleagues and sit at least 1 metre apart

Some would be excited to reunite with your favourite colleagues after a long and isolating period of working from home – we are too! However, try to dine alone and minimise physical contact with colleagues from other teams in and out of work as much as possible. Should you dine with others, avoid sharing food and cutlery, using a serving spoon if necessary. Remember that the 1 metre safe distance continues to apply in Phase 2, in and out of your workplace!

3)          Maintain good personal hygiene

Practising safe distancing is important but not enough to keep the community safe. Remember to wear a face mask even at the workplace and continue to wash and sanitise your hands regularly. Apart from keeping yourself clean, take time to disinfect common surfaces and high-touch surfaces (e.g. phones, keyboards, switches, doorknobs). These good personal hygiene practices would keep yourself and the people around you safe. Public health is literally in your hands!

4)          Use SafeEntry and TraceTogether

We need to do our part to speed up contact tracing and minimise transmission as we ease restrictions. Check in and out on SafeEntry diligently and download the TraceTogether app to help establish potential clusters. With technology, this can be done quickly– a small price to pay to lend a tremendous helping hand to our contact tracing effort!

5)          Stay home if you are sick

If you develop any COVID-19 symptoms, be sure to wear a surgical mask and see a doctor immediately. Keep to one doctor as much as you can – do not ‘doctor hop’. Most importantly, keep safe by not going to work. It’s better to be safe than sorry!

For more tips on how to keep safe in Phase 2 and beyond, check out the Gov.sg How-Tos.