convergence presents: "COVID-19 INTERNATIONAL RESOURCE & COUNTRY HEALTH & SAFETY COMPLIANCE TOOLS"

Our own Products Director, Christine Chui Lee presented at the Operational Excellence Conference hosted virtually by the National Association of EHS&S Management (NAEM) on how we are currently helping multinationals manage COVID-19 globally.  During her presentation which took place on May 21, she provided an overview of our COVID-19 Resource and Information page which provides an overview of 30+ countries’ management of the coronavirus in the workplace by answering six common questions.

1. Are COVID-19 cases classified as work-related and reported as a workplace illness?

2. Is there guidance on the timing of “return to work” and the process for a worker to return

3. Does the country’s health authority have COVID-19 mitigation guidelines for the public or for business?

4. If so, are these guidelines voluntary or mandatory?

5. Is there any consequence for not abiding by the mitigation guidelines

6. Has the country adopted any laws or regulations related to COVID-19? 

The presentation focused on a subset group of countries for analysis and provided worldwide trends about how countries are adjusting as the pandemic moves into the next stage.  In addition, Christine presented a brief introduction to the Core suite of tools that encompass legal registers and audit checklists, and support country regulatory H&S compliance for office and retail operations in more than 73 countries.  She linked the two topics by explaining that the country COVID-19 regulations pertaining to worker and workplace safety are included in the Core tools.

The NAEM Operational Excellence Conference was well attended; with nearly 500 participants from across EHS practices, corporations and manufacturing companies throughout North America. 

You can view our COVID-19 Resource and Information page on our website by visiting our home page.  You can also request more information, a free consultation or request a demo of our Core Country Compliance Tools here.

Abbott: Coronavirus Test Results in 5 minutes

On Friday, Abbott announced it received approval for a test that is capable of delivering positive results of the coronavirus in as little as five minutes. Abbott will begin making the tests available to health care providers next week. 

The Food and Drug Administration issued emergency use authorization for the point-of-care test on Friday. The test can detect negative results in 13 minutes. The company said it plans to ramp up manufacturing so it can deliver 50,000 tests per day. 

READ THE FULL STORY: Abbott Receives Approval for 5 Minute Test.

Wind Harmony: Seeking Your Views on the Health and Safety Issues of the Wind Energy Sector in the EU

The Wind Harmony project has just launched an online survey  to seek your views on the key health and safety issues currently facing the European wind industry, and potential solutions to those issues. The project seeks to understand where harmonisation or alignment at European level could reduce complexity, risk and cost, improve industry performance and lay the foundations for global wind industry standards.

The survey is open to everyone – including manufacturers, developers, operators, contractors (of all sizes), regulators, policy makers, national wind energy associations, researchers and technicians. Responses are anonymised and will feed directly into the next project workshop and inform the project’s final recommendations. The survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. The survey is also available in French, German and Spanish, and open until 2nd March 2020.

Access the survey 

You can also register for the 3rd workshop of the ‘Wind Harmony’ study that will take place on Friday 13th March (Paris). This workshop will validate the topics for potential harmonisation of health and safety and identify possible interventions for each of these topics based on expected improvements, cost reduction and overall efficiency. Check the detailed agenda and register here before 3rd March 2020.

More information on the project can be found at www.windharmony.eu .