CERN COVID-19 Response and Measures an Update - EDMS 2536062

CERN COVID-19 Response and Measures
 an Update

Benoît Delille/HSE EDMS 2536062
Directorate Online Meeting 12.04.2021 EDMS 2536062

Number of people on CERN sites: March 2020- April 2021

 Summer
 2nd wave
 Holidays

 Safe
 Mode

 • CERN pre-COVID: About 9000 people on site daily
 • Today: 4000 people on site daily
 • Only people needed on site come to CERN, people who can telework are 100% on telework
 • Health situation at CERN and in local area continuously monitored à see next slides
 • CERN measures continuously adapted, based on situation and restrictions in the Host-States

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COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic
 Positive cases in the canton of Geneva
 Positive cases vs time (CERN personnel + contractors)

 Second wave in
 CH and FR

 481

 CERN’s personnel: 340
 Contractors: 141
 Incidence rates in the local area

 Area Popul W9 W 10 W 11 W 12 W 13 Trend*
 ation
 Geneva(canton) 508k 126 146 184 202 193 210 (10 th

 Apr.)

 Vaud (canton) 799k 134 138 161 183 181 171 (8 th

 Apr.)

 Ain (Dept) 654k 169 192 258 335 403 345 (7 th

 Apr.)

 Haute-Savoie 829k 183 241 293 321 340 304 (7 th

 (Dept) Apr.)
 * Data from the latest 7 days

• Since the beginning of the health crisis, a set of measures put in place to manage COVID-19 positive/suspected
 cases, and close contacts
• Medical Service followed-up individually all positive/suspected cases and all close contacts, about 3000
 persons since the beginning of the pandemic
• The strict respect of measures prevented the spread of the virus on site
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Measures in Host States – Evolution at CERN (1/2)
 • What has changed since the last presentation to personnel (18th January)?
 • In brief … oscillations at the pace of Variants of Concern (VoC)
- FR: Tightening of Measures
 - Duration of isolation
 - Double testing
 - Lockdown and curfew measures
 - Schools moved to on-line teaching

- CH: Relaxation of measures postponed
 - In some cases quarantine for contacts of contacts
 - Extension of the testing strategy. Self-tests available since 7th April
 - Relaxation of measures postponed until 14th April at the earliest

 Situation still critical in local area Percentage of VoC - Virology Laboratory HUG

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Measures in Host States – Evolution at CERN (2/2)
 CERN Measures

 Testing On-site Stratified Testing On-site Testing Off-site
 Help trace COVID-19: act early - self-declare/self-evaluate on Tramed
 COVID Helpline & Helpdesk CoTrac Team
 Regulatory watch, Space occupancy, Risk analyses (CARA tool), Protection measures
- CERN: Swiftly adapting measures and completing toolbox for fighting COVID
 - CERN measures adapted (e.g. quarantine/isolation duration) based on advice of expert authorities, HSE recommendations and
 ED decisions
 - Weekly communication – thanks for feedback received!
 - Testing strategy strongly reinforced, based on three pillars (Off-site, On-site, On-site stratified) – See next slides
 - Matrix of decision for quarantine/isolation duration adapted, taking into account the testing strategy and tests results (double
 testing)
 - Application for self-evaluation and declaration developed : Tramed, information gathering and follow-up by the COVID helpline
 streamlined
 - Contact Tracing (CoTrac) team reinforced, use of Proximeter introduced
 - Regulatory watch continued, HSE COVID crisis cell, Space occupancy, Risk analyses (CARA tool), specific protection measures

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Testing Strategy (1/2)
• Off-site testing / RT-PCR tests
 • Contract in place with laboratory located in Meyrin, used by
 Medical Service since Monday 04/01
 • All appointments for suspected and close contact cases are
 proposed directly by CERN Medical Service
 • Results in less than 24 h
 • 417 tests up until Friday 09/04
• On-site testing / RT-PCR tests
 • On-site testing is available only to asymptomatic individuals
 without known or suspected exposure to COVID
 • Target population:
 • Travel requests
 • Vulnerable persons working on-site, on their request
 • Resuts in less than 24 h
 • Nasopharyngeal swab by CERN Medical Service, analysis in
 external lab
 • 91 tests up until Friday 09/04

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Testing Strategy (2/2) 58

• On-site stratified testing
 • Surveillance testing, not diagnostic testing
 • Stratified testing does not replace COVID related H&S
 measures
 • Testing is voluntary but is strongly encouraged 65

 • Target population proposed by Department Heads based on 24

 ‘at-risk’ groups, i.e.: 23

 • Risk of cross-contamination between colleagues, e.g.
 305

 teams on-shift;
 • Business continuity
 • 500 people identified, 250 tested/week
 • RT-LAMP tests, saliva sampling - results provided within few
 hours
 • 736 RT-LAMP tests up until Friday 09/04, 76 other type of
 tests
 • No positive cases found

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COVID Measures for shared offices – Use of the CERN CARA tool
 under the auspices of the Space Occupancy WG

 Methodology:

 1. Emission of viruses
 2. Simulate concentration and dose
 3. Estimate infection probability
 
 qD = = (1 − !qD )
 
N: new infections;
S: susceptible hosts = (total-infected) occupants; • Safety and Space Managers teams are capable of running
qD: Dose of inhaled viruses (1 quantum ≈ 63% chance of simulations (Teams of space managers, DSOs, LexGlimoses etc)
infection) • Summer Guidelines in preparation
Wells-Riley infection model (‘quantum’) • CARA tool used by other institutions (e.g. licence agreement
 signed with UN in Geneva)

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What’s next? Further evolution of CERN measures
• Current situation is characterized by a set of measures, impacting people and several services
 (access, travels, visits, restaurants, training etc). In particular, access is granted only if on-site
 presence is required, due to the situation in the local area. Currently, a flexible approach that involves
 dialogue with supervisors is applied, e.g. vulnerable or persons feeling isolated.
• New strategy under development that defines a COVID scale reflecting risk and corresponding
 measures, including access on-site
 • Based on the incidence rate in the Canton of Geneva and neighbouring departments
 • Teleworking rules in Host States
 • CERN assessment
 Today
• Level of service defined by relevant service owner
• Communication should be relatively easy, information will be provided in weekly Covid e-mail and on
 HSE website
• COVID scale will allow a gradual approach towards ‘normal’ conditions, with measures matching risk.

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What’s next? Vaccination at CERN?
• Members of the personnel, family members and retirees are included in FR or CH campaigns and are
 offered the vaccine in the same way and at the same pace as others in their respective country of
 residence. Initial priority given to healthcare professionals, and people with comorbidities
 • FR: since 27th March vaccination open to 70+, since today open to 55+ !
 • CH: since 17th March vaccination open to 65+
• CERN in contact with authorities since early January to explore the possibility of providing COVID-19
 vaccinations on-site once vaccine availability is expanded.
 • Discussions with relevant entities are still underway (Swiss mission, Pharmacienne cantonale, HUG)
 • If successful, the following criteria will be applied
 • Same order of priority as CH
 • Existing guidelines and protocols to be met
 • A number of questions still to answer: target population (family members residing in France?), potential
 collaboration with HUG, number and availability of doses, vaccination calendar, logistics, security etc

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Conclusions
• COVID will still be with us for a while
 • … but we are already preparing for the next phase!
• We’re all making CERN’s response sustainable
 • Protecting health of personnel
 • Whilst being flexible to meet the needs of the community
• Thank you all for respecting the measures on site. We count on your continued collaboration during
 this hopefully last period of the health crisis
• All information available here: https://hse.cern/covid-19-information
• Helpline for support and information: Covid19.Helpline@cern.ch
• Help in tracing COVID-19: act early - self-declare/self-evaluate on Tramed

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EDMS 2536062