Modern Mississauga and the City of Mississauga have come together to present an ongoing series called “Ask the City.” We’ll share relevant information here and answer your questions about our city.
Today’s question is about screening employees and visitors for symptoms of COVID-19.

Should businesses screen their employees and visitors for symptoms of COVID-19?

To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, businesses may choose to screen employees and visitors for symptoms of COVID-19 before they can enter the facility.

If a business decides to do this, they should consider using both passive and active screening measures.

Passive screening measures include posting signs at the entrance(s) of the facility to advise individuals not to enter if they are experiencing symptoms of illness and to practice good hand hygiene while on site.

Active screening includes asking individuals questions about how they are feeling to find out if they have symptoms of COVID-19 (e.g. difficulty breathing, cough or fever) and to determine if they have recently travelled outside of Canada.  Some businesses may also choose to do temperature checks on those entering as another way to monitor for symptoms of a fever.  If a person is screened as having symptoms or having recently travelled outside of Canada, they should be told to return home to self-isolate and to follow public health guidance.

Guidance on screening practices can be found on the Ministry of Health website..

Other steps that businesses should take to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 include: allowing staff to work from home where possible, requiring staff to stay at home if ill, encouraging good hand hygiene, minimizing contact between people by changing operations to pick up or delivery where possible, and designing the workplace so that people can physically distance themselves from one another (by at least 2 metres).

If you’ve got a question about the City, we want to hear from you!
Please send your questions to info@modernmississauga.com with “Ask the City” in the subject line.