By: 
 
Jana Kolar*, CERIC-ERIC  
Andrew Harrison, Diamond Light Source 
Florian Gliksohn, ELI-DC AISBL 
*contact jana.kolar@ceric-eric.eu  
 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
Executive Summary ............................................................................................................ 2 
Operations In The Time Of Pandemic................................................................................ 3 
Less Than Half Of The RIs Are In Operation .......................................................................... 3 
The Services Are Largely Dedicated To Covid-19 ................................................................... 3 
Users Are Served Remotely .................................................................................................. 4 
Safety Measures Put In Place To Enable Safe Operations During The Pandemic ......... 5 
On-Site Presence Authorisations ........................................................................................... 5 
Treatment Of Vulnerable People ........................................................................................... 6 
Staff Working From Home .................................................................................................... 6 
Cleaning And Staff Safety-Related Instructions ...................................................................... 6 
Use Of Protection Equipment (E.G. Masks, Gloves, Clothing).................................................. 6 
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 7 
Acknowledgement .............................................................................................................. 7 
Annex 1. Responding Institutions And Their Acronyms ............................................................ 8 
Annex 2. Publicly Available Safety Protocols.......................................................................... 10 
Annex 3. Cleaning and Staff Safety-Related Instructions ....................................................... 11 
 
 
 
 2 
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 
The on-going COVID-19 pandemic has strongly impacted the operations of analytical facilities. To 
protect their staff, several research infrastructures (RIs) are closed for operations or strongly limiting 
their activities while maximizing protection measures, while some others provide limited access to 
external researchers (users), primarily for COVID-19 related research. Yet, the crisis is likely to last 
for months and all facilities are considering restarting their services, albeit remotely and/or with 
limited scale. To assist RIs in this transition, the Association of European-Level Research 
Infrastructures Facilities (ERF) has invited the national and international analytical (experimental) 
facilities located in Europe that are open to international users to describe their working practices 
by replying to a questionnaire.1 As of April 21st 2020, 28 RIs, mainly European synchrotrons, neutron 
sources and laser research infrastructures, listed in Annex 1, have submitted their replies. This report 
summarises their responses, and also discusses some of the issues and possible future decisions 
faced by the analytical facilities in the time of the pandemic. 
The report first gives an overview of the current level of operations offered by the responding 
facilities2. Their responses confirm that the pandemic has had a profound impact on the operations 
of these RIs. The pandemic has brought many parts of the world to a standstill and, as a result, 
external users are unable to provide the samples for the scheduled measurements at the facilities. 
In addition, travel bans, together with local safety concerns at RIs, prevent users, who might have 
samples, from performing measurements. Furthermore, the required safety measures have also 
forced many research infrastructures to interrupt their services, at least temporarily. As a result, 
only 10 of the 28 respondents have reported to serve external users. All but one of these facilities 
have set up specific support services on COVID-19 related research. 6 of the RIs continue to support 
also research of external users in other domains, but the staff and the available instruments are 
generally reduced. This is to increase safety, but also due to fact that most of the scheduled 
experiments are cancelled.  
A marked change is also a strong shift towards remote services for external users, which allows 
samples to be mailed in. As a response to the current travel limitations, several of the responding 
organisations are working on expanding their offer of remote access, limited so far to specific 
instruments such as macromolecular crystallography beamlines at synchrotrons, by extending it to 
other instrumental set-ups. Since the COVID-19 crisis will likely require a prolonged and widespread 
provision of remote access to the instrumentation across the RIs, it is proposed that the facilities, 
as a priority, introduce remote services wherever possible. In addition, many instruments should be 
modified in ways that reduce the number of the required staff for their operation to one, thus 
allowing for the necessary social distancing. However, generally, more staff will be needed to provide 
continuous support to the users performing experiments remotely and such experiments are likely 
to require more time. Consequently, measures should be put in place to increase their throughput. 
Introduction of remote instrument control, where possible, would contribute to the safety of the 
staff, improve efficiency and facilitate the analysis of mailed-in samples. This approach should 
 
1 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdjYy4Ghbb4Olwy1CHWhapAnk7fSv8b8iikgHkz6qIBjI2ukQ/viewform 
 2 Seven RIs have indicated that they wish their responses to be treated anonymously. Therefore, the examples referring to specific institutions 
are presented only for those who have agreed to their names being used in the report. 
 
 
 3 
optimally be coordinated across similar facilities in order to develop and share high-quality, 
innovative solutions. Such a concerted approach would facilitate adoption and acceptance of these 
new developments since user communities and experts on instruments are historically structured 
around each type of analytical facilities. There would be some merit too in sharing best practice and 
plans for developments across RIs that have some common elements of operations, for example 
synchrotrons and FELs with laser and neutron facilities. 
Widespread adaptive measures are needed to prevent RIs from having to durably and significantly 
limit their services during the pandemic. Such limitation might come with detrimental effects on the 
ability of RIs to contribute effectively to the development of solutions to other pressing societal 
challenges, such as climate change or cancer. In addition to the review of the current level of 
operations, the report summarises the safety measures put in place by the RIs in order to enable 
safe operations during the pandemic. The collected practices address issues such as on-site presence 
authorisations, protective measures for vulnerable staff, support to the staff working from home, 
cleaning and staff safety-related instructions and use of protection equipment such as masks, gloves, 
clothing. While the World Health Organisation (WHO) as well as many European countries provide 
general instructions regarding the safety of personnel, it is hoped that these collected practices, 
some of which are specific to analytical facilities, will contribute to the safe and swift re-launch of 
operations and services provided by these research infrastructures, but also, more broadly, by 
European research performing institutions. 
OPERATIONS IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC 
LESS THAN HALF OF THE RIS ARE IN OPERATION 
The pandemic has strongly affected the working practices of most of the responding RIs. While one 
third (10/28)3 remained in at least partial operations when the pandemic broke out, the others had 
to shut down operations for a few weeks, one even for a few months. However, by the time of the 
submission of the replies to the questionnaire, half (14/28) are at least partially in operation, though 
only nine offer services to external users. 
THE SERVICES ARE LARGELY DEDICATED TO COVID-19 RESEARCH  
In addition to limiting or affecting operations, the pandemic has also had a marked effect on the 
type and conditions of the work performed. Out of the 10 facilities currently offering services to 
external users, all but one have services dedicated to COVID-19 research and 6 continue to support 
external users working on other topics. The 4 other organisations in operations, but not serving 
external users, perform only internal research. It has to be stressed that, in many cases, the decision 
whether to close down operations or to continue serving users depends on the national measures 
decided by the State or regional authorities, rather than on the sole decision of the facility itself. 
Operations are not only largely dedicated to COVID-19 research, but also downsized, as the number 
of instruments and the staff is decreased in 12 out of 14 RIs in operation. In several institutions, 
 
3 Number of institutions that have replied positively/number of all RIs that have replied to the specific question 
 
 
 4 
only the instruments capable of contributing to COVID-19 research are running and the number of 
staff present at those instruments are reduced to diminish risks to safety.  
– Diamond Light Source (‘Diamond’), for example, reports that only a small number of 
beamlines requested for COVID-19 research plus 2 Cryo-EM instruments are running so far, 
though there are plans to extend this to a wider range of remote access. Staff levels are 
reduced to a total of about 20 staff during the day, including people to receive samples when 
they arrive, to store samples safely and transfer to the beamline, and to maintain machine 
operations as well as a team of cleaners. Most beamlines run with only occasional 
intervention. 
– At European XFEL, the activities in the biology support laboratories aimed at contributing to 
research related to SARS-CoV2 started in mid-April, followed, at the beginning of May, by 
the first steps towards re-start of the facility and a normal, more regular operation later in 
the year, involving X-ray delivery. 
– At ALBA, the activity is to start with only one person per beamline, with only part of the 
beamlines operating, and progressively increasing. Small tasks of installation and 
maintenance are allowed, depending on the priority level and the possibility of developing 
with single or at maximum two people working together. COVID-19 research is always 
allowed, minimizing the involved staff and with strong attention to precautionary measures. 
– At PSI, the Swiss Light Source is operating for COVID-19 as well as other research, though 
external users are not allowed on site. MX beamlines are in 100% remote access mode, while 
other beamlines offer mail-in mode for external users with varying degrees of support by in-
house staff. There are limitations to the range of experiments that may be supported, for 
example where complex operations require close proximity of workers on the beamline, or 
chemical hazards mean that lone working is not compatible with safety requirements. One 
regular shutdown has already been postponed to allow COVID-19 research to continue, and 
operations are 24/5 rather than 24/7. 
– The ESRF site is currently closed, operation conditions are halted and kept in stand-by 
conditions, implementing the ESRF Continuity Plan for pandemic. During this time, one agent 
per instrument is on call and eventually available on five instruments selected to be used in 
case urgent scientific research on COVID-19 is required by the user community 
USERS ARE SERVED REMOTELY 
In addition to a shift towards COVID-19 related research and limited operations, another marked 
change during the pandemic is the almost complete use of remote analysis, whereby the samples 
are mailed in and then analysed without the presence of the users on site. Several institutions were 
offering remote access already before the crisis; for example, several synchrotrons have remote 
access to their MX beamlines, though such remote access is much less common on other types of 
beamline.  
It is clear that the current pandemic will have long-ranging consequences on the delivery of services 
by analytical facilities to their users. Travel restrictions and the need for social distancing require 
that facilities develop innovative solutions to enable remote access to their instruments, whenever 
possible. Due to COVID-19, ELETTRA and CERIC are currently jointly accelerating remote access to 
 
 
 5 
the beamlines at ELETTRA using new advanced technologies, including secure web-based remote 
access via edge computing to all the beamline control, data acquisition, data processing and analysis 
application, remote access to the acquired data during and after the experiment, collaborative 
experiment execution and remote presence via videoconference, real-time chats, voice user 
interfaces and telepresence robots. At ESRF, pre-existing sample mail-in and user remote access 
have been in place for a few instruments since before the COVID-19 pandemic. These procedures 
will soon be extended to almost every user-dedicated instrument. 
In addition to these modifications in support of remote access, further adaptations should also 
enable experiments to be performed under the requirements of social distancing, while not affecting 
the throughput of analysed samples. A coordinated, standardised approach, involving also the user 
communities, would certainly be welcomed by the researchers that these facilities serve. 
SAFETY MEASURES PUT IN PLACE TO ENABLE SAFE OPERATIONS 
DURING THE PANDEMIC 
Almost all (24/28) of responding institutions report having established dedicated COVID-19 safety 
protocols. Often, they are disseminated to staff through email, although some institutions have 
published them on their web pages (Annex 2), or both. 
In the following, some of the safety measures are presented in more detail. 
ON-SITE PRESENCE AUTHORISATIONS 
In most cases, only approved staff can enter the facility, while an authorisation is needed for the 
rest. HZB reports that the granting of access to BESSY-II depends on whether the entrance is needed 
and requires a self-declaration that there was no contact to infected people for 3 weeks. At ILL, it is 
granted after a medical auto-test with a possibility to refer to the Occupational Health Doctor. At 
SOLEIL, no more than 5 persons are allowed at the same time on site and exceptions are discussed 
every day and validated by the SOLEIL Directorate. Diamond has an electronic approval process for 
who is allowed into its buildings, with sign-off by the Director of the appropriate. Anyone coming on 
site must also have completed on-line safety training related to COVID-19. At ALBA, the Director 
approves a weekly plan prepared by the Coordination Office, defining tasks and staff allowed in the 
facility, who follow a specific and mandatory on-line safety training. At the time of writing, less than 
10% of the total staff can simultaneously be present at the facility. External security staff and 
representatives of the external cleaning company are allowed to enter, while authorization is needed 
for external companies only for urgent needs under very strict conditions. At European XFEL, about 
30% of the staff can be allowed on site since May 4th. Specific hygiene guidelines were put in place 
and accompanied by an online training, which must be accomplished by all staff accessing the 
campus. 
 
 
 
 
 6 
TREATMENT OF VULNERABLE PEOPLE 
Most of the facilities in operation have identified staff who are vulnerable or who have caring 
responsibilities for vulnerable people. At several institutions such as ALBA, DESY, Diamond, ELI 
Beamlines, NIMP, NMR-NIC, PALS, PSI and ULF-FORTH, these identified staff are not allowed to 
enter the institution.  
STAFF WORKING FROM HOME 
Most of the facilities have put in place special measures in support of home working. Mostly, they 
focus on providing the staff with home office tools, access to internet and safety guidelines and 
health recommendations are regularly communicated to the staff.  
Regarding staff wellbeing, several institutions provide psychologic support and inform the staff about 
other resources that they can access for advice and help. ALBA provides recommendations on 
healthy habits, follow-ups of personal situations by supervisors, and the possibility of asking for 
psychological support. An emergency committee with representatives from management and 
workers’ council meets two-three time per week. Many of these arrangements have also been put 
in place for Diamond, together with extended guidelines to managers to help maintain social 
cohesion in their teams and pages on a dedicated new intranet web pages to gather such 
information, together with all other COVID-19 related information for staff. HZB and Diamond make 
possible paid leave in cases of hardship. At PSI staff working from home are supported by a wide 
range of services based on the following three pillars: 1. free webinars on topics such as work 
technique & time management and work-life balance for a large number of participants, 2. virtual 
group exchange formats/interactive online seminars with a limited number of participants, 3. 
individual one-to-one consultations. Parents who are particularly challenged by the situation of 
combining home office and childcare can book a free one-to-one coaching session (German or 
English) with an external specialist by e-mail. These services are listed in the daily bulletin of the 
PSI Pandemic Staff.  
CLEANING AND STAFF SAFETY-RELATED INSTRUCTIONS 
EU countries have issued instructions to the employers and several of the RI report that they adhere 
to the national guidelines. Their comparison and evaluation are beyond the scope of this report. 
Nevertheless, Annex 3 summarises the current practices, based on the recommendations of the 
WHO4, internal protocols, and recommendations of the institutions that have responded to the ERF 
questionnaire.  
USE OF PROTECTION EQUIPMENT (E.G. MASKS, GLOVES, CLOTHING) 
As with the other recommendations, it is important to keep in mind that the new research on COVID-
19, which is published at an unprecedented pace, requires that recommendations, including the use 
of the protection equipment, be reviewed and potentially adjusted on a frequent basis. At the time 
 
4 https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/advice-for-workplace-clean-19-03-2020.pdf?sfvrsn=bd671114_6 
 
 
 7 
of the publication of this report, WHO recommends the use of masks for people who are coughing, 
sneezing, or taking care of people with COVID-19.5 On the other hand, some recent research6 as 
well as some governments, prescribe the use of non-medical cloth masks in public spaces in order 
to limit the transmission of particles from the wearer to the outside world, also in the case of 
asymptomatic carriers of the virus. Regardless of the differences observed in the recommendations, 
it is important to note that masks are effective only when used in combination with frequent hand-
cleaning with alcohol-based hand-rub or soap and water.5 Also, mask wearers should know how to 
use them and dispose of them properly.5  
In most of the responding institutions the use of masks is not mandatory (9/23), nor is the use of 
gloves (7/23).  
CONCLUSION 
The Association of European-Level Research Infrastructures Facilities has invited European analytical 
facilities to report on their operations in the time of pandemic, as well as the specific safety protocols 
put in place. The responses demonstrate the breadth of the impact that the COVID-19 has had on 
the operations of the facilities serving international users in the domain of physical science and 
engineering. While many of the research institutions came to a standstill, several of the research 
infrastructures did not discontinue their operations or resumed them after a few weeks. However, 
operations are limited in scale and often focused on supporting the COVID-19 related research. 
Another major impact of the pandemic on these RIs is the provision of user access almost exclusively 
remotely and the introduction of safety protocols that protect the staff during the operations of the 
facilities. These practices, which are summarised in the report, demonstrate the flexibility and 
responsiveness of the European analytical facilities when faced with a major crisis. 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 
This questionnaire has been set up by ERF and CERIC in the frame of the EC-funded project 
ACCELERATE, co-funded by the European Union Framework Programme for Research and 
Innovation Horizon 2020 under grant agreement 731112 and coordinated by CERIC.  
We thank all European analytical facilities who have contributed to this survey by responding to the 
questionnaire and reviewing this report. 
DISCLAIMER 
New findings are published daily and will affect the recommendations. It is advised to update the 
safety protocols regularly. Consequently, some of the information contained in the report might 
become outdated. ERF and CERIC shall not be held responsible for the information exhibited herein 
and its use. 
 
5 https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks 
6 Face Masks Against COVID-19: An Evidence Review, Preprint, doi:10.20944/preprints202004.0203.v1 
 
 
 8 
  
 
 
 9 
ANNEX 1. RESPONDING INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR ACRONYMS 
Institutions replying to the questionnaire and their acronyms: 
ALBA Synchrotron, Spain (ALBA) 
CEA Paris-Saclay / LIDYL, France 
Central European Research Infrastructure Consortium, Italy (CERIC) 
Centre for Energy Research, Hungary (BNC) 
Coimbra Laser Lab, Portugal 
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Germany (DESY) 
Diamond Light Source, UK (Diamond) 
Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, Italy (ELETTRA) 
ELI Beamlines, Czech Republic 
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, France (ESRF) 
European XFEL, Germany 
Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas, Ultraviolet Laser Facility, Greece (ULF-FORTH) 
Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum, Germany (MLZ) 
Helmholtz zentrum Berlin fuer Materialien und Energie, Germany (HZB) 
Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany 
Institut Laue Langevin, France (ILL)  
Prague Asterix Laser System, Czech Republic (PALS) 
Juelich Centre for Neutron Science - Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH, Germany 
Laboratoire d'optique appliquée, France 
Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses, France 
National Institute of Chemistry - NMR centre, Slovenia (NMR-NIC) 
National Institute of Materials Physics, Magurele, Romania (NIMP) 
Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland (PSI) 
PHELIX at GSI, Germany (PHELIX) 
 
 
 10 
SOLARIS National Synchrotron Radiation Centre, Poland (SOLARIS) 
STFC Central Laser Facility, UK 
Synchrotron SOLEIL, France (SOLEIL) 
Vilnius University Laser Research Center, Lithuania 
  
 
 
 11 
ANNEX 2. PUBLICLY AVAILABLE SAFETY PROTOCOLS 
 
ALBA Synchrotron: 
https://www.albasynchrotron.es/en/covid-19-information/safety-guidelinesrev5.pdf 
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY in Hamburg, Germany: 
https://www.desy.de/coronavirus/index_eng.html 
Diamond Light Source: Provides them by email on request 
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, France: 
https://www.esrf.eu/home/news/general/content-news/general/covid-19-update.html  
 
European XFEL: 
https://www.xfel.eu/organization/covid19/index_eng.html 
 
Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas: 
https://eody.gov.gr/neos-koronaios-covid-19/ 
 
Helmholtz zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie:  
https://www.helmholtz-berlin.de/pubbin/news_seite?nid=21180;sprache=en 
 
Paul Scherrer Institute PSI:  
https://www.psi.ch/en/corona/information-of-the-pandamic-team  
 
Vilnius University Laser Research Center, Lithuania:  
https://www.ff.vu.lt/mokslo-ir-studiju-naujienos/1188-karantino-metu-paskaitos-nuotoliniu-
budu#darbo-fizikos-fakultete-taisykles-karantino-metu 
 
 
 
 
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ANNEX 3. CLEANING AND STAFF SAFETY-RELATED INSTRUCTIONS 
This annex summarises the current practices, based on the recommendations of the World Health 
Organisation,7 internal protocols, and recommendations of the institutions that have responded to 
the ERF questionnaire as of 21st April 2020. The information presented is a good source of possible 
safety measures. Nevertheless, it should be considered that various countries or regions have 
different requirements, and that new findings are published daily. They will affect the 
recommendations and it is advised to update the protocols regularly. Consequently, some of the 
information contained in the report might become outdated.   
ERF shall not be held responsible for the information exhibited herein and its use. 
- Common general instructions provided by employers  
o Promote teleworking; 
o Consider time-scheduled entrance, to avoid too many people present physically at the 
site; 
o Inform employees regularly of the changes introduced; 
o Define a location where an employee who has fallen sick while at work can wait until 
safely transported home. Consider setting up of a safe transportation mode. 
o Display posters promoting correct hand washing; 
o Make use that sanitizing hand rub dispensers are placed in prominent places and regularly 
refilled; 
o Organise work in a way to enable required social distance between employees. If 
possible, there should be one person per office, two per larger offices; 
o Introduce measure to avoid sharing of the equipment (e.g. keyboards); 
o Promote respiratory hygiene. Provide masks, at least to those with a runny nose or cough 
at work; Consider using the non-medical masks in public places. 
o Anyone with a mild cough or fever (37.3 or more) should stay at home; 
o Consider closing much of the working areas to keep the area used to the minimum 
needed; 
o Reduce face-to-face meetings as much as possible. They should be limited to a few 
people only, while securing the defined interpersonal space; 
o In rooms where several people are present, e.g. during a face-to-face meeting, open 
windows and doors whenever possible, to make sure the venue is well ventilated. 
- General instructions to the employees 
o If you experience symptoms (temperature or new, continuous caught) while you are 
working, go home immediately. Wait at the designated site until transported by the 
service provider, in case public transportation is the means of transportation. Please 
contact your line manager and HR by phone or email once at home. Call your doctor and 
follow the advice; 
 
7 https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/advice-for-workplace-clean-19-03-2020.pdf?sfvrsn=bd671114_6 
 
 
 13 
o Always maintain an interpersonal space of at least 1.5 to 2 m and avoid all physical 
contact with other people, including touching clothes, handshakes, etc.;     
o Follow the respiratory hygiene instructions. In case of a runny nose or cough at work, 
the use of a mask is obligatory. Some institutions consider mandating the use of non-
medical masks in all public places, in confined spaces and in all situations, where the 
required social distancing cannot be met; 
o Adhere to good hand washing practice. Key times are on arrival at work, before departure 
and on returning home. Also, disinfect hands regularly. Use of gloves should not be a 
substitute for good hand hygiene and general infection control;  
o Avoid touching your eyes, nose, mouth with unwashed hands;  
o Clean or dispose of protective equipment after use and do not share it; 
o Cover all cuts and abrasions with a waterproof dressing; 
o Make sure rooms with several people are properly ventilated. If suitable (e.g. in the 
absence of appropriate air circulation system), the doors and windows should be open; 
o Avoid touching your eyes, nose, mouth with unwashed hands;  
o Cover all cuts and abrasions with a waterproof dressing; 
o Make sure rooms with several people are properly ventilated. If suitable (e.g. in the 
absence of appropriate air circulation system), the doors and windows should be open; 
o Several countries currently prohibit travel. When allowed, travels should be reduced to 
the minimum. Follow the institutional guidelines in the case travels are necessary. 
- Moving to and around the site 
o If necessary, discuss alternative working hours with your manager in order to avoid using 
public transport at peak times; 
o Only one person at a time in the cloakroom with hand washing before and after; As far 
as possible, minimise your movement around the site – restrict to areas where you are 
located and where you are working. No loitering at printers, in coffee rooms or communal 
areas. Use of local signage; 
o Whilst moving around site, carry tissue with you and use this to hold door handles.  
Dispose of the tissue at the end of your journey;   
o Minimise the use of kitchen areas through use of personal drinks bottles, etc.  Only use 
the closest kitchen. The surfaces and items touched whilst in the area should be kept at 
minimum. Social distancing, hand washing/disinfecting before and after obligatory. 
o For on-site canteen, consider scheduling its use to allow for social distancing. Consider 
the use of meal packages or catering. 
- Cleaning of general surfaces 
o Keep your workspaces clean and tidy.  (This is to facilitate deep clean if required). 
o Cleaning of door handles and other surfaces, likely to be touched, several times a day. 
Non-fire-doors can be propped open to minimise touch contact. Other doors should be 
kept open; 
o Cleaning the footwear on a wet mat soaked with disinfectant solution; 
 
 
 
 14 
- For common objects:  
In addition to droplets, contamination of surfaces, which are touched by people is one of the main 
ways that COVID-19 spreads.8 It is therefore recommended that a shared use of objects is avoided, 
whenever possible. If it cannot be avoided, objects such as keyboards, telephones, desks, etc, should 
be wiped with disinfectant regularly.  
o If possible, people should not share workspaces or workstations unless there is a three-
day interval in-between or the area has been cleaned (wiped down with disinfectant). A 
disinfectant spray should be used at the workstation to clean door handles, tables and 
common surfaces: this can be done at shift changes, e.g. the agents arriving on shift 
clean the common surfaces; 
o Avoid sharing common objects (no exchange of pens for example);  
o Persons should use their own IT equipment (keyboards, mice, touch screens, etc). 
Alternatively, a plastic film can be stretched on the computer keyboard and removed 
after a person finishes using it and the items, or cleaned, if possible, with a disinfectant 
or a suitable, non-contact cleaner. Some institutions mandate wearing gloves. In such a 
case, they should be changed often. Also, use of gloves should not be a substitute for 
good hand hygiene and general infection control;  
o The paper transmission notebook can be transformed into electronic transmissions. 
- For food: 
o Avoid bringing and sharing food;  
o Do not make drinks for other people; 
o If you are preparing meals in the kitchen:  
▪ Wash hands before preparing food: 30 seconds including wrists;  
▪ Wearing a surgical mask during food preparation;  
▪ If raw food is purchased in plastic wrap, you can prepare it with gloves if 
necessary. 
 
8 https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/331705/WHO-2019-nCoV-Food_Safety-2020.1-eng.pdf