Hireup acknowledges that these are unprecedented times. This article is communicated with the intention of providing guidance on how Hireup Support Workers can reduce the risk of contracting and spreading coronavirus (COVID-19) when transporting the person you are supporting. We all have a duty of care to ourselves and the people we support to take reasonable care of our own health and safety and to not adversely affect the health and safety of others.
This article applies to Support Workers when transporting someone on a support shift.
Where possible, Support Workers should:
- maintain physical distancing e.g. ask the person to sit in the back seat of the vehicle
- ask the person to handle their own items (bags, phone etc) where possible
- have alcohol-based hand sanitiser for you and the person you are supporting., and regularly use it after opening and closing doors, touching any items and after personal contact
- Avoid any unnecessary touch, and use gloves when touch is required (eg, assisting someone moving from standing to sitting in the car. If gloves are not available, use hand sanitiser.
- clean surfaces with appropriate disinfectant wipes if a passenger spreads droplets (such as sneezing, coughing or vomiting)
- set the air conditioning to external airflow rather than to recirculation, or have windows open where appropriate
- Employ standard cleaning practices at the end of each shift, as part of good hygiene practice by wiping down surfaces with disinfectant, including a focus on high touch point surfaces such as door handles and internal handles, seats and seatbelts, window controls and boot lids.
If you have been exposed to someone who has returned a positive result for COVID-19 testing or is at risk of COVID-19 due to exposure to a confirmed case please contact Hireup immediately for further instruction and support.