Page 30 - Security Today, April 2021

“Having a key control solution that is able to audit and track key usage and identify, the user is now as much a public health concern as a security function.”
nel, information, and/ or certifications or compliance that would be required of any person who would need access to the space behind each door and then assign the appropriate key-locking technology.”
In the new world of COVID-19, a security department’s in- ability to track and control its facility’s keys can prove deadly. To that point, all business operations run on a core set of principles, one of which is maintaining a duty of care for employees and staff. Keeping a business safe is good business. If clients and cus- tomers don’t feel safe, the business will suffer.
That fact is being played out on a daily basis across the coun- try as many organizations struggle to reopen and regain the confidence of not only customers but of their staff as well. The challenges of reopening with limited occupancy, social distanc- ing, ensuring that sick employees remain home, and the increased burden of constant facility maintenance has only strengthened the need for reliable contact tracing.
HOW CONTACT TRACING WORKS
As businesses and organizations continue to struggle with re- opening, most health experts have agreed that a coordinated and strategic plan for COVID-19 contact tracing is the best method of safely opening and minimizing another devastating pandemic wave.
Crystal Watson, a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Cen- ter for Health Security, states that contact tracing “is the best tool we have to manage this in an ongoing way and allow our economy to open up again,” and she estimates that the United States will need at least 100,000 workers trained in contact tracing across the nation, at a bare minimum, to keep COVID-19 at a manageable level. There are currently around 30,000 contact tracers.
Contact tracing is not a mysterious science but simply a mat- ter of dogged detective work that is used to break the chains of transmission and help manage the spread of the epidemic, while preventing future surges. The use of contact tracing is one of the oldest public health tactics, dating back centuries, said Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO for the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
“It means that as soon as you know of a person who may have a virus or have tested presumptive positive, you work immediately to first isolate that person so they do not spread it further,” Free- man said. “You keep them away from other people, and then you work with that person directly to understand who they have come in contact with.”
According to the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, there are four steps involved in contact tracing for the coronavirus.
• Initial notification of the person under investigation (PUI).
Contact tracing should be initiated as soon as possible 1 after a
PUI is identified.
• Interview PUI. Interviews should include a discussion about
confidentiality and verification of demographics, such as age, sex, race). Walk through the entire infectious period hour-by- hour and ask the PUI to share who they were in contact with during that time. Provide the PUI with guidelines on isolation to
prevent spreading COVID-19 to others.
• Locate and notify contacts who may have been exposed to
COVID-19. Inform them of their contact status and what that means. Assess for the presence of symptoms and provide contacts with guidelines 3 on quarantine to prevent potential spread of infection.
• Monitor contacts. Follow up with contacts to make sure they are following the quarantine instructions, and to track the de- velopment of any potential 4 COVID-19 symptoms.
Experts say that contact tracing hasn’t been a widely imple- mented strategy among the general public in COVID-19 response because the pandemic surged quickly and there were not enough tests available to figure out exactly who carried the virus. In a se- curity context, administrators grapple with the challenge of pre- venting the spread of the coronavirus in their own facilities. Once a case has been identified, security and HR managers attempt to trace the path of infected persons to identify what floors they visited internally and who they may have encountered, hoping that once all the suspects have been contacted, they will be sent to home quarantine.
A KEY CONTROL STRATEGY IS CRUCIAL
A comprehensive key inventory and tracking system is an es- sential element of any strategic plan to combat the coronavirus as you build and implement a COVID-19 physical security control plan. Most common touchpoints in a facility are unavoidable and of concern for many building tenants and employees.
Even as organizations begin to upgrade to touchless access control systems, keys remain a vital access tool for controlling in- gress to high security workspaces like data centers and computer rooms that house equipment and server racks, or in municipal buildings, such as police stations, administrative offices, museums and libraries where keys are used for public buildings, municipal vehicles, and alarm boxes.
Having a key control solution that is able to audit and track key usage and identify, the user is now as much a public health concern as a security function. For example, in a resort of hotel environment, by integrating hotel key inventory software, facil- ity managers can easily control reporting and program access capabilities. If an employee has called in sick, and another staff member must cover for that person, the manager can remotely authorize access to a key management system rather than physi- cally traveling to the site to release a key. The hotel key control software can run activity reports and sort based on different crite- ria, allowing management to generate useful information to help mitigate access control issues and at the same time use these re- ports for contact tracing of employees who may have contracted the virus.
Security for any key system is the result of strict management and protection of the physical keys, which includes policy-driven key system protocols and software that enables searchable audit data that can help with not only security but the new rigors of COVID-19 tracking and monitoring.
A sound physical security control plan may seem daunting, but intelligent technology investments and
proactive security policies that encompass an
integrated access control and key control road-
map will bolster both security and COVID-19 health monitoring mandates now and into the future.
Tim Purpura is the vice president of sales and marketing at Morse Watchmans.
30
APRIL 2021 | SECURITY TODAY
PERIMETER SECURITY