With the continued spread of the new variants of Coronavirus (COVID-19), our number one priority is the health and safety of our employees, partner, suppliers, and customers. In this crisis, our emphasis continues to be on the well-being of those we work with and serve. For that purpose, we have proactively instituted enhanced cleaning protocols in offices, warehouses, and production facilities and adopted social distancing according to regional and national recommendations. In some instances, we have also canceled or postponed appearances at trade shows, travel, and in-person sales calls depending upon the pandemic’s geographic area and local status to minimize direct personal contact to help keep everyone healthy.

While maintaining focus on keeping everyone safe, we are continuing business operations and, at the current time, are able to fulfill existing orders and accept new orders reliably. We are still in contact with you, taking orders, shipping, and supporting all of you via phone and other electronic platforms. Please call on us to help you in any and every way. We will do our utmost to help you to the fullest extent possible. Increasingly, authorities have issued mandates that require some facilities to be closed for an extended period; to date, this has not included RA facilities. At this time, our facilities are 100 percent operational. We have long prepared for the possibility of a pandemic within our overall business continuity plan to ensure we can maintain this service level while ensuring the health and safety of all that interact with our facilities. We continue operating and shipping products normally. If you have an order with RAF, it will ship as confirmed, and you will be notified of any change. If you wish to know if a product of interest is available, don’t hesitate to contact customer support, who can give you an up-to-date status report.

We are closely monitoring the spread of COVID-19 and are following the recommendations of global and local public health authorities in all regions in which we operate. We will continue to provide updates as the situation develops.

We hope that you and those around you are and remain safe. We are privileged to have you as a customer, and even in this unprecedented situation, we are working hard to continue serving you as you expect. Thank you for your business, your friendship, and your trust.

An overview of the safety precautions we are implementing to protect employees, customers, suppliers, and partners and ensure business continuity can be found below.

Customer, partner, and employee health and safety:

  • We are significantly boosting safety protocols across our facilities, including implementing critical sanitary measures and additional specialized training to prepare for a possible pandemic.
  • We are increasing the communications with and screening customers, suppliers, partners, and employees to ensure they only enter our facilities if they have not traveled to impacted areas, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization, within the past 14 days and are symptom-free.
  • We are deferring all non-essential travel.

Business continuity

  • Our facilities are equipped with the supplies to ensure they remain fully operational if limited or remote operation becomes necessary.
  • We regularly engage our critical suppliers to confirm their Pandemic Response plans and have reviewed their capacity to provide service continuity.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is RAF's response if individuals show flu-like symptoms while onsite?
  • If an individual is or becomes symptomatic on site, RA has defined protocols that include isolating the individual in a pre-defined area, notifying management, assisting the individual in leaving the site, and seeking medical attention immediately.
  • In addition, the site teams have identified an exit path from the isolation area designed to minimize exposure to others while exiting symptomatic persons from the site. Once a person has been removed from the site, thorough cleaning of the isolation area, exit path, and other areas where the person may have traveled will be performed.
  • We also expect our customers and vendors to proactively reach out to RAF’s management team should they become aware of a suspected COVID-19 case or are aware of an employee or vendor who may have been in contact with another party who tested positive for COVID-19 where permissible.
What will happen in the event that there is a confirmed case associated with the facility
  • If management becomes aware that a person who visited a particular facility has tested positive (through testing or self-reporting) for COVID-19, the site team will escalate to our management team, which will issue an Event notification to all impacted individuals.
  • We then commence our deep cleaning and disinfection protocols, which may include engaging our retained industrial hygienist and specialty COVID-19 restorative cleaning provider for the common public areas of the facilities and for non-customer leased production areas. The U.S. Centers of Disease Controls (CDC) recommends “to close off areas used by the ill persons and wait as long as practical before beginning cleaning and disinfection…for a period up to 24-hours” before commencing cleaning and disinfection. We recommend customers follow CDC guidance and direct their employees to work remotely where practicable upon receiving notification of a confirmed case and while we complete cleaning.
  • The evacuation would not be a fire drill but would be orderly and controlled, giving teams time to conduct tasks needed for their operations.
  • After disinfecting has completed and the evacuation period expires, we will then send an “all clear” notice (which may come anywhere between 24-48 hours after case identification.
  • Unless directed by government or health agency authorities to close the facility during cleaning, the facility will remain open to all permanent badge holders and access readers. As the purpose of evacuation is to allow dissipation of any virus particles to ensure the building is safe for the cleaning crew to come in, we discourage anyone from entering the building during the evacuation/cleaning phase until we announce it is safe to re-occupy the building.
  • We recommend only essential personnel who have been tested or have not entered the facility within the past 14 days and have not exhibited any flu-like symptoms re-enter the facility. Customers are asked to coordinate access for their essential personnel in advance with site management to ensure minimal disruption.
If there is a confirmed case, how would RA clean within a production environment?
  • If we are alerted to a case of COVID-19 at one of our facilities, RA will immediately work with all parties involved, including the relevant local public health authorities, where appropriate, to obtain the facts and confirm guidance on steps to be implemented. By way of example, the company may undertake additional cleaning and disinfecting protocol of the common areas that the infected individual may have visited.
  • If a facility requires additional cleaning and disinfection per CDC or other city or state authority guidelines, this will be completed after the recommended waiting periods by a specialty cleaning vendor to augment cleaning protocols where needed.
  • We will execute a non-spray, cloth-applied disinfection process. We will focus on high-touch / high-traffic areas, including door handles, rails, and non-electrical equipment panels.
  • Touch screens and touchpads will be cleaned and disinfected if required. Given this equipment’s potential sensitivity, an alternative method (i.e., waiting over a period of time) may be used when a label is placed on the screen that shows “off limits – do not use until after MM DD.” The intent is that the touch screen or pad will be off-limits for a prescribed period of time to prevent transmitting the virus from surface contact. If the touch screen or pad needs to be used immediately, it will be cleaned and disinfected following methodology to be executed by the contractor and under the approval and direct supervision by RA technology personnel oversight.a
Under which conditions is entry allowed to the facility after disinfection?
  • Upon completion of cleaning from specialist disinfection companies and/or clearance from local governmental agencies, if involved, RA Operations will communicate an “all-clear.” We recommend only essential personnel who have been tested or have not entered the facility in the past 14 days with no flu-like symptoms re-enter the facility. All persons entering the facility will be asked to undergo verbal screening procedures.