Below, in response to requests received to share these, are the safety protocol the Seniors Association of St. Margaret’s Bay uses to provide delivery assistance to members.
The following precautions are suggested to help you deliver groceries, medicines and other urgent needs in a safe manner for both you and the recipient. By avoiding touch and droplets in the air from a possibly infected person (or any person), your exposure remains low when making deliveries.
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- Before you leave your house, wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds, dry your hands with a paper towel, and discard the paper towel in a covered waste receptacle.
- Organize your supplies to take with you: new bags that can be fastened, containing latex or vinyl gloves, disinfectant wipes, paper or plastic disposal bags and hand sanitizer to take with you.
- Put on your protective gloves.
- Wipe down your steering wheel, door handles, gearshift, keys and any other surface you touch in your car.
- Proceed to the grocery store, pharmacy, or other designated location, and pick up the order. Wipe your gloves with a sanitizer wipe or hand sanitizer.
- Leave the client’s order, preferably outdoors on their doorstep or, if necessary, just inside the door. Ring the doorbell, stand back 6 ft. (2 metres) and wait for the person to pick up their goods. DO NOT GO INTO THE RECIPIENT’S HOUSE OR ACCEPT ANYTHING FROM THEM.
- Wipe your hands with a disinfectant wipe when you get back in your car.
- If you are making a second delivery, remove gloves using a glove to glove/skin to skin technique: grasp outside edge of first glove near wrist and peel away, rolling glove inside out as you peel it off. Reach under the second glove with your now bare fingers and peel
away the second glove the same way. Discard both gloves immediately.Wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds, dry with a paper towel and discard the paper towel in a covered waste receptacle or a paper or plastic bag, which you will then fold closed and discard safely.
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When you return home, wipe down your steering wheel, door handles, gearshift, keys and any other surfaces you have touched in your car. Follow step 8 above if making another delivery.
- Before you leave your house, wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds, dry your hands with a paper towel, and discard the paper towel in a covered waste receptacle.
Please conserve your supplies – there is currently a shortage of all supplies.
If face masks are available:
Place mask over nose and under chin, moulding the metal piece to the bridge of your nose. Face mask ties and straps are considered clean, and can be touched by hands.
To remove the mask, pull mask forward, bending forward to allow the mask to fall away from your face, and discard the mask immediately .
IMPORTANT NOTE: This protocol has been developed by a health care professional. We share it here as a courtesy to community members helping family and friends. This protocol is not intended to replace professional advice for specific situations. The Seniors Association of St. Margaret’s Bay is training delivery volunteers to the highest possible standard, as outlined here. Even though that standard may exceeds necessary precautions in most situations, we are committed to keeping our entire community, including our volunteers and our members as safe as possible.
PLEASE check with the Canadian government’s official COVID-19 website for more complete guidelines.