Cleaning & Safety Protocols

Edgar H. Wilson Convention Center is committed to ensuring that our facilities are as safe as possible. The following Safety First Guidelines will illustrate the measures we have taken to help protect the health and well-being of our employees and guests:

• Edgar H. Wilson Convention Center will monitor federal, state, and local public health communications about COVID-19 regulations, guidance, and recommendations and regularly update our employees as this information evolves.
• Employees will be evaluated daily before beginning work for signs of illness, such as a fever over 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, a cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, chills, muscle pain, sore throat, or new loss of taste or smell.
• Employees are required to stay home if they are sick.
• Employees will inform their supervisor if they have a sick family member at home with COVID-19.
• Employees showing symptoms consistent with COVID-19 will be isolated and sent for medical attention or self-quarantine pursuant to CDC guidelines.
• Employees with COVID-19 illness or exposure will not be allowed to return to work until they have met the CDC return to work criteria.
• Employees who are guest-facing or who come in direct contact with guests, will wear cloth face masks and gloves. All employees who prepare or handle food will be required to wear a face mask, gloves and hairnets/hats while preparing food or in any food preparation areas.
• Employees will be required to complete thorough training regarding the updated hygiene standards and practices. The areas of training will include proper personal hygiene steps to protect themselves and cleaning protocols.
  • Before and after breaks
  • After blowing their nose, coughing, or sneezing
  • After using the restroom
  • Before eating or preparing food
  • After putting on, touching, or removing face masks, gloves, or face shields.
  • Employees will be required to wash their hands according to CDC recommendations, which include:
• Employees will practice routine cleaning and disinfecting of frequently touched objects and surfaces such as workstations, keyboards, and telephones and refrain from using each other's phones, desks, offices, or other work tools and equipment when possible.
• Employees will receive regular communications advising them of any ongoing developments and the protocols the company has put in place to manage COVID-19.

Edgar H. Wilson Convention Center will follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Guidance for Cleaning and Disinfecting www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/cleaning-disinfecting-decision-tool.html to develop, implement, and maintain a plan for regular cleaning. Guest sanitizing stations will be added in common areas throughout the convention center and specialty shops. Locations, surfaces, and equipment that are occupied and frequently touched, such as the ones listed below, but not limited to, will be regularly disinfected using products approved by the CDC.

• Escalator handrails
• Door hardware
• Restrooms
• Portable radios - earpieces will not be shared
• Loading dock
• Kitchen
• Food pantries
• Ice machines
• Vending machines
• Concession stands

Edgar H. Wilson Convention Center will adhere to routine maintenance on HVAC systems including, but not limited to the following:

• Increase ventilation speeds
• Disable demand-controlled ventilations (DCV).
• Further open minimum outdoor air dampers (as high as 100%) to reduce or eliminate recirculation.
• Routinely change filters to ensure they are within service life and appropriately installed.
• Keep systems running longer hours, 24/7 if possible, to enhance air exchanges in the building space.

The following steps will be taken by Edgar H. Wilson Convention Center:

• Signage will be installed in common areas to communicate recommendations, health alerts and guidelines from the CDC. Signage topics will include, but not be limited to preventative steps, symptoms of COVID-19, social distancing best practices, and other relevant travel alerts.
• Room capacities will be re-calculated to comply with the most current government requirements.
• Tape marks, or other visual cues such as decals or colored tape on the floor, placed 6 feet apart, will be placed at entrances to restrooms and points of sale.
• Where practical, common area furniture will be repositioned, restricted, or removed to allow for physical distancing.
• Doors to meeting spaces will be placed in open position when possible to limit touching.
• Electronic payment terminal/credit card readers will be located farther away from the cashier, if possible, to increase distance between the customer and the cashier.

The following precautions should be taken by the client and their contractor for all events:

• Consider having exhibitors, attendees and contractors wear face masks/cloth face coverings.
• Install hand sanitizing stations within leased space.
• Assign exhibitor move-in/out times to minimize the number of people on the loading dock and engage a dock manager to marshal trucks and personally owned vehicles (POVs) to control flow of crowd.
• Install plexiglass shields on exhibitor tables and service desks.
• Install removable decals on floor at registration area for attendees to follow indicating acceptable amount of space between each other.
• Move to digital registration.
• Discourage handshaking.
• Go cashless, if possible.

Edgar H. Wilson Convention Center's Food and Beverage operations have been assessed and new practices will be implemented to align with best practices for safety, hygiene, physical distancing and reduce overall contact when possible. Protocols include, but are not limited to:

All self-serve food and beverage items will be replaced temporarily with the following:

• Culinary employees must wear a face mask, hairnet, hat and gloves.
• Kitchens will be deep cleaned and disinfected at least once per day. Food preparation stations will be sanitized before and after each use.
• Hand sanitizing stations will be placed in food service areas.
• A Food Safety Manager will be present during food and beverage service.
• Custom banquet menus will be created that focus on simple, quality ingredients that reduce the amount of contact in kitchen prep and production areas and from ingredients that are available and can be sourced daily.
  • Attendant-served buffets or individually plated meals
  • Attendant-served receptions
  • Attendant-served coffee and other break functions as appropriate
• A divider will be placed between the attendant and the guest.
• Bar offerings are limited to packaged beer, wine and cocktails. No garnishes.
• Guests will hold their own identification for bartender inspection. If an employee must handle a guest's ID, the employee will then dispose/replace their gloves.
• Flatware will be prewrapped in a napkin or disposable utensils will be used.
• There will be six (6) feet of separation from seating to seating and a limit of ten (10) guests per table.
• Table linen will be changed after each use.
• Table pre-set service items will be removed. Single-use salt and pepper, and sugar packets will be offered.
• Plexiglass shields will be installed at concessions point-of-sale.
• Edgar H. Wilson Convention Center intends to eventually transition to a "cashless" facility.

• Associates will use hand sanitizer throughout the day and after every client interaction.
• Associates who are guest-facing or who come in direct contact with guests, will be required to wear a face mask and gloves while on property.
• Contractor will enhance equipment cleaning protocols to all high-touch equipment such as, but not limited to, microphones, laptops, wireless remotes, keyboards, mice and communication headsets will be disinfected after each session and daily and after each session.
• Contractor will work to adapt procedures for set/strike and in-room operator technicians to maintain physical distancing.

The guidelines included in Safety First Galleria Reopening are subject to change pending direction from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Emergency Declaration Office of the Governor State of Georgia, and Georgia Public Health Department.