Our building complex of Biosciences and the research parts of the connected Life Sciences and MerseyBio buildings opened this week – a two week pilot and the first research building complex on campus to re-open after the lockdown. In reality, like a number of buildings in the Faculty, these had never closed. A small number of covid-related projects were running during lockdown, including our glyco one. These required skeletal support services. Moreover, key maintenance, from plants, to fly strains and flushing the water system to prevent a Legionella outbreak had to continue during lockdown.
Re-opening though was a different matter – a massive undertaking by our Safety and Technical teams supported by professional services staff.
How we work now.
No one has to come in – there is no compulsion, only those who feel safe to do so should.
Face covering is mandatory if you are in a communal area – that means pretty much everywhere, except when you sit in one of the isolated seats outside the lab area and have your Billy No Mates lunch. Face covering means a mask (we provide disposable & reusable black ones) and/or a visor (also provided).
This is a good model – social distancing is far from a perfect protection, due to turbulent air flow, passing back to back without face covering again may not protect you for the same reason and people are of different statures: a short person will need to be more than 2 m behind a tall person to be safe! So, we do distancing AND face coverings. Simple and effective.
One entrance only to police access, but the other entrances can be used as exits, as this reduces traffic at the front door.
Our single entrance, the side door at the front is always locked, so you need a working card key to get in. We have a rota, so we don’t exceed occupancy limits. Sign in. Hand sanitizer dispensers everywhere you go (I gather 70 were installed….), though I carry a little bottle with me and use the clean hand/dirty hand approach that is so useful in some experiments.
We have a one way stair system (left side up, right side down), 1 person in a lift limit. Otherwise, because of how our buildings are configured, corridors have to be 2 way, back to back passing with face covering is the norm (or back up to a passing spot!). Distance markings are everywhere, corridors, labs. Room occupancy limits on every door. Spots that can be occupied on benches marked. Labcoats in plastic bags, so when hung up, they don’t contact another.
Rule breaking? 1 strike and you are out, card key deactivated and retraining. As we are still working hard on re-opening retraining will not be a priority, so this is not worth the risk. In this first week compliance has been very good, which is encouraging.
I have been amazed at how fast and effective re-opening has been – not just the work on the ground, that all can see, but everything else – SOP, Risk Assessment, Webinar etc. For researchers, there was a bit of disorientation – being in a lab after such a long break, and the realisation that work will be different. No longer can you go into the office, pick up on lab book, computer, go into lab, start something, head back to office, etc., as common office space is particularly restricted. So much more forward planning, and also more cooperation, since a little quid pro quo in this new world will get a lot more experimentation done. I reckon that once we get into this new groove productivity may increase.
The downside? Training requires at times close work, but then we can mask and visor up. There remains the problems of troubleshooting and general creativity. Neither work well over electronic systems. I have been involved in enough collaborations to know that every now and then you have to have face to face meetings. Creativity and solving practical problems is very much dependent on human contact. We might manage this in a large seminar room, as it will only involve a small number of people. We will see.
A few pictures
Stairs – up only on this side, useful auto dispensing hand sanitiser on the left if you are coming onto the floor (door has a pull handle on the other side).
Ferniglab Blog 
It’s great to see some pictures of the lab again, I miss those days of having lunch at the end of the corridor, at the time Billy with Mates with the also former French group of colleagues such as Val, Paul and Yann, fun times for all.
Let’s hope can get a little closer to that someday soon for the current workers in Biosciences.