Safer working spaces at coronavirus time: A novel use of antibody tests

Foncea, Patricio; Mondschein, Susana; Massouh, Ragheb

As SARS-Cov 2 spreads worldwide, governments struggle to keep people safe without collapsing the economy. Social distancing and quarantines have proven to be effective measures to save lives, yet their impact on the economy is becoming apparent. The major challenge faced by many countries at this point of the pandemic, is to find a way to keep their critical industries such as health, telecommunications, national security, transportation, food and energy functioning while having a safe environment for their workers. In this paper we propose a novel approach based on periodic SARS-CoV 2 antibody testing to reduce the risk of contagious within the working space, and evaluate it using stochastic simulations of the health evolution of the workforce. Our simulations indicate that the proper use of testing and quarantine of workers suspected of being infected can greatly reduce the number of infections while improving the productivity of the company in the long run.