Reopening the Massachusetts economy during COVID-19 will require employers to implement a phased return-to-work strategy to prevent a second surge of infections that would overwhelm the health care system, one of the state’s leading business groups recommends.
The Massachusetts High Technology Council suggested that excluding workers over 60 from the initial stages of return-to-work could reduce the future burden on hospital capacity.
“City closures and social distancing [are] highly effective if instituted early – but second waves are likely and can be worse than the first if proper measures not taken before re-opening,” the report, issued Friday, states.
Potential workplace strategies include temperature checks and thermal cameras to screen workers for fevers, but employers will have to ensure they comply with HIPAA and ADA requirements and prepare for potential liability from outbreaks and deaths. Excluding those over 60 years old from the initial return to work segment may greatly reduce the hospital burden without affecting a large portion of the working population, MHTC said.
The study breaks the workforce into three categories based upon their ability to work from home, with industries such as transportation, health care, retail and food services facing the most challenges and comprising 37 percent of the U.S. workforce.
It also suggests that employees who live with at-risk individuals may need to work from home for a longer period, or set up alternate living arrangements. Up to 40 percent of the over-65 population in Massachusetts lives with people who would otherwise be returning to work, according to data from the 2018 American Community Survey.
The report cites examples from the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 when cities such as Denver and St. Louis reopened prematurely or with insufficient social distancing, leading to a second outbreak exceeding the initial wave.
Contributors to the study led by High Tech Council Executive Committee member Steve Pagliuca included 29 businesspeople, researchers and health care experts.
