On the 22nd of June the Department officially re-opened to people who are unable to work from home, almost exactly three months after it closed in compliance with Covid-19 restrictions.
“Not that staff were completely absent during the lockdown,” comments Head of Department James Keeler. “We kept a regular schedule of security and maintenance officers who ensured that the building and our instruments were maintained, and that we would be in a position to open safely as soon as the restrictions were lifted.”
"And because we shut the labs down very carefully and maintained all of the infrastructure, we actually could have walked back into the building as far as our equipment was concerned. The real challenge was working out how to safely re-occupy the building under social distancing restraints."
One-way systems and such
James says: "The main difficulty is reducing the risk of infection by social distancing. We’ve instituted a one-way system throughout the building, starting with the stairs to the front entrance, and we’ve installed hand-sanitising stations at all entrances and exits."
He points out, laughing: "Almost none of our corridors is wide enough to allow two metre (or even one metre) social distancing! So where one-way systems can’t be used, we will all be learning “corridor etiquette” to allow someone to pass before entering a corridor yourself."
Marita Walsh says: "Where possible, the corridors are one way. Corridor etiquette operates though, which means if you are working in a lab or office that is off of a one-way-only corridor, and you need to travel against the flow in order to get to another lab along the same corridor, please check and do not enter the corridor if someone is walking towards you. Some corridors cannot be made one-way, so please walk on the left and maintain social distancing if you can."
Labs and Technical Facilities
Particular problems include smaller labs where people are using equipment such as Mass Spec or NMR. All the research groups have set up allocated times for use, to ensure social distance and adequate cleaning time. Duncan Howe and Andrew Mason in NMR and Dijana Matak Vinkovic, Asha Boodhun and Roberto Canales Candela in Mass Spec have all been working hard to devise new operating protocols, Covid-19 risk assessments. and booking systems for submitting experiments.
"Our goal is to have no more than 25 to 30 percent occupancy in any one area at any time, so we are still saying that staff may only come to work to undertake activities that cannot be done at home," says James. "So most members – both research and support staff – will continue to work at home, including anybody in high risk groups."
PhD student Tamsin Newlove operates a fume cupboard - 
social distancing measures are now in place for researchers and students who need to use lab equipment.
Toilets
Marita points out that some journeys will take longer because of the one-way system, and there are also not as many toilets available as previously - so she reminds everybody to plan their journeys (especially to the toilet) accordingly!
