Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
Amid swine flu fears, Florida businesses stress hygiene, planning
By JEFF OSTROWSKI, ALLISON ROSS and SUSAN SALISBURY ? Palm Beach
Post Staff Writer ? September 6, 2009
Should swine flu sweep South Florida, Becky Cohen is ready.
Cohen runs disaster preparations for BankAtlantic Bancorp, and she holds the Certified Business Continuity Planner designation (yes, in this era of SARS and Y2K scares, there is such a thing). With nearly 100 branches in Florida, many of them open Saturdays and Sundays, BankAtlantic offers an ideal venue for the H1N1 virus to spread.
So Cohen already has prepared doomsday plans that would let the bank keep handling deposits and withdrawals while minimizing person-to-person contact.
"We can always go down to just drive-through. We can always go to just ATMs, if it got down to Will Smith movie-type stuff," Cohen said. "But in reality, we're just trying to keep the branches clean."
Five Palm Beach County residents and more than five dozen Floridians have died of complications from swine flu this year, and President Obama's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology last month issued a grim report predicting as many as 90,000 deaths nationwide.
But with swine flu still more threat than reality, many Florida businesses are repeating the old saw about preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. They're also telling workers to stay home if they're ill - but not to worry about losing their jobs if they have to take time off to care for sick children.
Retailers, restaurants, malls and large employers say they're stressing cleanliness. At the Mall at Wellington Green, for instance, workers take special care to wipe down the trays in the food court.
"We've stepped up the frequency of the cleaning, especially in high-traffic areas like the play area, the restaurants and the food court," said Rachelle Crain, the mall's marketing director.
Publix urges employees to wash their hands often or to use alcohol-based hand sanitizer, spokeswoman Kim Jaeger said. Florida's dominant grocer has placed wipes at front entrances for customers to use on shopping cart handles.
http://www.news-press.com/article/20090906/HEALTH/90906023/1013/RSS03
By JEFF OSTROWSKI, ALLISON ROSS and SUSAN SALISBURY ? Palm Beach
Post Staff Writer ? September 6, 2009
Should swine flu sweep South Florida, Becky Cohen is ready.
Cohen runs disaster preparations for BankAtlantic Bancorp, and she holds the Certified Business Continuity Planner designation (yes, in this era of SARS and Y2K scares, there is such a thing). With nearly 100 branches in Florida, many of them open Saturdays and Sundays, BankAtlantic offers an ideal venue for the H1N1 virus to spread.
So Cohen already has prepared doomsday plans that would let the bank keep handling deposits and withdrawals while minimizing person-to-person contact.
"We can always go down to just drive-through. We can always go to just ATMs, if it got down to Will Smith movie-type stuff," Cohen said. "But in reality, we're just trying to keep the branches clean."
Five Palm Beach County residents and more than five dozen Floridians have died of complications from swine flu this year, and President Obama's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology last month issued a grim report predicting as many as 90,000 deaths nationwide.
But with swine flu still more threat than reality, many Florida businesses are repeating the old saw about preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. They're also telling workers to stay home if they're ill - but not to worry about losing their jobs if they have to take time off to care for sick children.
Retailers, restaurants, malls and large employers say they're stressing cleanliness. At the Mall at Wellington Green, for instance, workers take special care to wipe down the trays in the food court.
"We've stepped up the frequency of the cleaning, especially in high-traffic areas like the play area, the restaurants and the food court," said Rachelle Crain, the mall's marketing director.
Publix urges employees to wash their hands often or to use alcohol-based hand sanitizer, spokeswoman Kim Jaeger said. Florida's dominant grocer has placed wipes at front entrances for customers to use on shopping cart handles.
http://www.news-press.com/article/20090906/HEALTH/90906023/1013/RSS03