Under the direction of Mayor Jim Brainard, the Carmel Fire Department (CFD) is taking an aggressive and proactive approach to conduct on-site visits and provide helpful guidance to all essential businesses in Carmel seeking to keep their employees and customers safe from the spread of COVID-19. Among the businesses that have already been visited are grocery stores, pharmacies, dry cleaners and hardware stores.
Brainard
During the visit, CFD personnel review the store’s operating procedures to get an accurate picture of the steps being taken to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Among the procedures they are looking for:
- Are employees being tested for COVID-19?
- Are temperatures taken at the beginning and end of each day?
- Are employees showing signs of sickness being sent home?
- Are masks being worn?
- Are employees and customers maintaining physical distancing?
- Are employees washing their hands?
- Are shopping carts and other surfaces kept clean and disinfected?
After seeking the advice of medical professionals to determine which procedures are most effective, CFD personnel is making a checklist of each business visited. Then, CFD personnel make suggestions on improvements that can be implemented to better protect staff and customers in these essential businesses.
Mayor Brainard sees this as the first step of developing best practices for all businesses to adopt as the COVID-19 restrictions begin to gradually be lifted by the State of Indiana.
“As the fire department collects information, this will give the city a good blueprint for how to reopen in the coming weeks and months,” Brainard said. “It’s very important that we protect our essential workforce now and learn how best to protect all workers as they return to their jobs and interact directly with customers again. We must make sure that we are making decisions based on what is the best and safest for the community as a whole.”
After the first round of visiting essential businesses, the CFD will develop a more comprehensive list of best practices so that it can be helpful to residents and businesses.