03/18/21—A return to normalcy is the destination many are looking forward to as the world moves through this ever-evolving pandemic. With vaccinations ongoing in some countries and COVID guidelines being relaxed in portions of the United States, is social distancing on its way out? While some uncertainties remain surrounding COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control maintains that close contact, the main instance in which COVID is spread, needs to be minimized in order to most effectively reduce transmission. Even with more vaccines in arms every day, the CDC notes that both those vaccinated and unvaccinated should still social distance in public settings. Why is this?
The main reasons all revolve around the uncertainty of dealing with COVID-19. It is yet to be seen how effective vaccination will be against current and future variants, presenting a huge variable as more new strains emerge. While some early data shows those who have received a vaccine could be less transmissible, it appears some can still catch and transmit the coronavirus unknowingly. Another grey area is duration of immunity for both those infected naturally and those exposed through vaccination. Until researchers know definitively how long vaccines will protect people, caution needs to be maintained, especially in the workplace.
Business owners and leadership know that keeping tabs on social distancing in their facilities can be a challenge. Implementing a digital solution to speed up, streamline, and solidify mitigation efforts makes things simple, taking the guesswork out of protecting employees. While the AlertTrace system seamlessly collects contact tracing data throughout the day, it also uses this data to notify wearers immediately when they are within range of another user. The red light on the wearable minis will blink red when this happens, alerting users to any unintended breaches of social distancing. In addition, minis also include an optional buzzing feature, for additional reinforcement of social distancing guidelines. The range in which contacts are logged is configurable, so companies can tailor the AlertTrace system to their specific needs.
In addition to helping workers maintain physical distance, the user-friendly analytics dashboard enables leadership to make data-driven decisions based on the contacts made in their facility. Administrators can quickly and easily identify patterns in where the most contacts are being made, on which calendar days, and at what times. With this in mind, measures can be taken to ensure hotspots can be diffused, perhaps by staggering break times, restructuring problem activities, or changing the flow of traffic within the facility. Once new preventative protocol is put in place, the AlertTrace dashboard can definitively show admin how effective the measures have been in reducing contacts.
Another feature to pinpoint issues is the ability to sort all the wearable users’ anonymized data by which wearables are making the most contacts. When organizations have information on which wearables are consistently breaching workplace guidelines, appropriate education and reminders can be provided to the employees who need it. Data from AlertTrace deployments have shown an 80% increase in adherence to COVID related guidelines, greatly mitigating the risk of spread within the workplace. When social distancing and other preventative measures come together with the accurate and reliable data from AlertTrace, leadership can be assured that their employees and their productivity are as safe and secure as possible. Contact us today to get the world’s most accurate BLE enabled contact tracing technology working for your team.
