The COVID-19 pandemic is continuously wreaking havoc around the world, particularly in the United States, which has the most cases in any other country with new cases recorded every day, but despite that, most states have agreed to ease lockdowns a bit to help the economy as it's one of the most affected sectors.
Nevertheless, re-opening businesses these days come with risks, especially without proper planning.
Creating a Model
With that, a group of mathematicians and statisticians created a model for the economic payoff of security measures that will be put in place, as well as the spread of the virus within companies to help business owners know how to re-open their businesses safely.
The findings are now published in Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics.
According to the researchers, under a wide range of parameters, businesses will only be able to re-open their businesses if they adopt the following safety measures: wearing masks whenever they aren't alone, goggles, and gloves, along with routine sanitation of the work floor, frequent handwashing, social distancing, regular monitoring of body temperature, and quarantine of sick employees and those who have been exposed to them.
Under the assumptions of the model, the researchers say these measures will help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and increase your net profit.
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How to Re-Open a Business
"We show that a business entity may stand a good opportunity to generate positive net profit after re-opening only if necessary protection measures are strictly implemented," said lead author Professor Hongyu Miao, the director of the Center for Biostatistics Collaboration and Data Services at the University of Texas Health Science Center.
Furthermore, the professor said it is essential to monitor the number of infections in the early days of re-opening by testing for the virus and contact tracing.
According to a Phys.org report, the group first developed and approximately solved five differential equations for the numbers of infectious, susceptible, quarantined, recovered, and deceased employees in a company.
However, these assume that employees would self-quarantine immediately once they show symptoms, and those who can work from home would stay at home.
Additionally, they assumed asymptomatic, and those with mild cases could still infect others and that those who are sick will still receive their full pay.
Using Math and Statistics to Help Entrepreneurs
The researchers also modeled the net profit based on the average salary of US workers as well as the cost of safety measures, including testing and the PPE, along with the reduction of productivity due to limited working hours and workers.
"Our aim was to provide a quantitative yet simple modeling tool for business executives to plan for re-opening their workplace," Professor Miao explained.
As of now, only a few places are only allowed to open, and they could only operate if they follow state mandatories, including limited customers, workers, social distancing, and the wearing of proper protective gear.
Nevertheless, tons of businesses still continue to close down permanently due to losses caused by the pandemic, and many are left jobless.
Hopefully, this new model could help more businesses re-open and overcome the pandemic.
This article is owned by TechTimes.
Written by: Nhx Tingson
