🎓 COVID-19 protected area

Our University has been awarded COVID-19 Protected Area status after passing an external audit carried out by AUDELCO, a company that audits and certifies management systems for the prevention of workplace hazards. The audit was carried out throughout May and June.

The aim of this certification is to validate our University’s system to manage the risk of COVID-19 infection, ensuring compliance with regulations at each phase of lockdown, including the current post-lockdown phase known in Spain as the “new normality”), as well as following sectoral guidelines. As part of this process, we have drawn up a COVID-19 Prevention Plan  along with specific protocols for our activities. The process has proved a success in part thanks to the participation by the University’s senior management and the heads of Human Resources, charged with preventing workplace hazards. 

The protocol developed by AUDELCO evaluates all aspects related to the effective prevention of COVID-19 infection, affecting both procedures and organisation, such as hygiene, cleaning and disinfection, training/information, monitoring of workers, students, visitors and contractors, health checks and protective equipment, among others. The system will be evaluated every six months, with any necessary adjustments being made as required.

The conditions contained within the protocol cover the various stages and situations that come up as part of the regular activity on the Bellesguard campus: the stage prior to beginning your studies; your arrival; your stay at the school; occasions when healthcare is required; the planning of group activities; oversight and monitoring. 

The section that covers the moments prior to you joining the school refers to cleaning and disinfection services, which have been stepped up and adapted to ensure effectiveness against the specific characteristics of COVID-19. We have expanded daily cleaning, and this includes disinfection with authorised virucidal products, as well as guidelines for protecting our cleaning staff.

The section on your arrival at the university is essential in controlling conditions to minimise the risk of infection on campus once you have joined us. To this end, workers on campus will be provided with personal protective equipment (PPE). There are also temperature controls for students and teachers at the entrance to the premises, along with a mechanism to disinfect footwear, which is obligatory. 

Use of face masks will also be mandatory whenever on campus. The measures that focus on your stay at the university cover a wide variety of situations. Most of the measures have involved the rearrangement of spaces to create safe pathways throughout the University. To this end, social distancing measures, such as the redistribution of furniture in classrooms, meeting rooms and reception areas, reducing seating capacity, changes to recreation rooms such as the dining room and cafeteria, distance signs on the floor for queuing, and the installation of protective screens where workers need to interact physically, such as at the check-out. 

The following general guidelines will apply when moving around within the University: walk in single file on the right side, keeping a distance of two metres, with one person in the toilets at a time, and use of lifts reserved for people with reduced mobility.

The AUDELCO certificate also covers approved protocols to manage potentially contaminated waste. Additionally, waste bins and containers with pedal-operated lids have been installed, along with hydroalcoholic gel dispensers in common areas.  

As for healthcare provisions, the COVID-19 Protected Area audit has approved our protocols on the referral of symptomatic students, healthcare services, psychology and pedagogy services, preventive isolation of symptomatic people, communication to the Health Department responsible for outbreaks, communication to the relevant healthcare authorities, communication to contacts potentially exposed and communication to parents of under-age students. 

The section on planning of group activities provides protocols on how to carry out classes and tests, how to receive and accompany visitors to the University, safe ways to run tutor sessions and face-to-face meetings, how to interact with service companies and how to coordinate with external companies. 

Finally, the audit also sets forth the mechanisms to be used to monitor implementation of the many prevention measures described.