COVID-19 Occupational Health and Safety Directive 29.5 states ‘The employer must ensure that surfaces that workers and members of the public come into contact with are routinely cleaned and disinfected.’

In line with COVID-19 Occupational Health and Safety directives, employers are obligated to ensure that workplaces are safe for employees to return to work. PPE, social distancing and disinfection to support OHS, but how can you be 100% sure that shared and high touch surface areas and the overall work environment are not contaminated?

COVID-19 Occupational Health and Safety Directive 29.5 states ‘The employer must ensure that surfaces that workers and members of the public come into contact with are routinely cleaned and disinfected.’

Testing is crucial to ensure that surfaces are in fact COVID-19 free, and is an imperative part of efforts to identify and prevent risk as part of your comprehensive risk mitigation plan, supporting legal evidence that all reasonable OHS safety measures have been taken. Regular testing also informs audits by the Department of Labour and NCID, proving the business has availed itself of every possible measure to clean, disinfect and maintain a safe working environment.

NOSA Testing, South Africa’s largest and most comprehensive EHS, food safety, exposure analysis and veterinary laboratory group, is now the only entity in South Africa able to carry out surface and environmental sampling for the detection of Coronavirus S gene specific to COVID-19, in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) protocols for health care and public health.

Results are available within 48 hours, allowing business to take the necessary decontamination measures before reopening for business and exposing staff and customers to risk.

NOSA Testing can help South African businesses detect the presence of COVID-19 by means of our RNA virus determination real time PCR method. NOSA Testing has more than 20 years’ experience in diagnostic and zoonotic analysis.

Analysis is performed by competent HPCSA registered professionals. These laboratories meet the current biosafety and biosecurity standards according to the OIE Standards for biological risks, and all testing takes place in a BSL2 testing environment which is a minimal requirement recommended by the World Health Organization.

NOSA Testing COVID-19 environmental PCR will assist South African business by:

> Assisting businesses to reopen and reduce economic and social loss

> Mitigate the risk of litigation

> Working in conjunction with cleaning and disinfection projects  

> Reducing the high probability of employees and customers contracting COVID-19

How does NOSA Testing carry out COVID-19 analysis?

Utilizing Real Time PCR Kits imported directly from the UK.

NOSA Testing methodology of analyses tests for two protein genes on the virus to confirm presence. They are:

> E gene which detects corona viruses (Envelope protein)

> S gene specific to COVID-19 (Spike protein)