Question: How should social distancing be maintained in labs and research facilities?

Answer passage (source: UK):
page_title: Labs and research facilities
section_headers: 3. Social distancing at work
section_content: In this section

3.1 Coming to work and leaving work
3.2 Moving around buildings and worksites
3.3 Workplaces and workstations
3.4 Meetings
3.5 Common areas
3.6 Accidents, security and other incidents

Objective: To maintain 2m social-distancing wherever possible, including while
arriving at and departing from work, while in work, and when travelling
between sites.
It will not always be possible to keep a distance of 2m in labs and R&D
facilities that may be designed for close-proximity collaboration. Fixed
equipment may mean that changing layouts to create more space may not be
practical.
Where the social distancing guidelines cannot be followed in full in relation
to a particular activity, businesses should consider whether that activity
needs to continue for the business to operate, and, if so, take all the
mitigating actions possible to reduce the risk of transmission between their
staff. Mitigating actions include:

increasing the frequency of hand washing and surface cleaning
keeping the activity time involved as short as possible
using screens or barriers to separate people from each other
using back-to-back or side-to-side working (rather than face-to-face) whenever possible
reducing the number of people each person has contact with by using ‘fixed teams or partnering’ (so each person works with only a few others)

Social distancing applies to all parts of a business, not just the place where
people spend most of their time, but also entrances and exits, break rooms,
canteens and similar settings. These are often the most challenging areas to
maintain social distancing.
*[R&D]: research and development

Reviewer feedback on this answer:
Specific social distancing guidelines are given for labs here as well as other mitigation methods where actual social distancing is not possible.
The info here is good.  It is directly related to labs and to social distancing when working in the labs.

Reviewer ratings:
Excellent
Excellent

Answer passage (source: UK):
page_title: Labs and research facilities
section_headers: 3. Social distancing at work
3.3 Workplaces and workstations
section_content: Objective: To maintain social-distancing between individuals when they are at
their workstations.
Unlike offices, R&D facilities may need workers to share workstations and
equipment. If they need to be shared, they should be shared by the smallest
possible number of people.
If it is not possible to keep workstations 2m apart then businesses should
consider whether that activity needs to continue for the business to operate
and if so take all mitigating actions possible to reduce the risk of
transmission.
Steps that will usually be needed:


Review layouts where possible, accepting the limitation of some lab environments.


Using floor tape or paint to mark areas to help people keep to a 2m distance.


Only where it is not possible to move workstations further apart, using screens to separate people from each other.


Only where it is not possible to move workstations further apart, arranging people to work side-by-side or facing away from each other rather than face-to-face.


Managing occupancy levels, to maintain social distancing in labs with restricted space, for example, by adapting booking systems to limit usage.


Cleaning workstations and shared equipment and machinery, where it is feasible to do so.


Limiting use of high-touch items and shared office equipment, for example, test equipment, apparatus, shared control terminals.


Ensuring appropriate air-handling and filtering systems are installed and maintained in high-risk areas where there is a risk for airborne particles.


*[R&D]: research and development

Reviewer feedback on this answer:
Answer is very detailed and specific to research facilities which will have some commonalities with laboratories as far as workstations go so this should be helpful on both counts.
This is a good answer.  It talks about social distancing in an area like a lab.

Reviewer ratings:
Excellent
Excellent

Answer passage (source: UK):
page_title: Labs and research facilities
section_headers: 3. Social distancing at work
3.2 Moving around buildings and worksites
section_content: Objective: To maintain social-distancing wherever possible, while people
travel through the workplace.
Steps that will usually be needed:


Reducing movement by discouraging non-essential trips within buildings and sites, for example, restricting access to some areas, and encouraging use of radios or telephones, where permitted, and cleaning them between use.


Removing access controls on low category labs so that people do not have to use access cards.


Restricting access between different areas of a building or site, if possible.


Using fixed teams or adjusting booking processes to reduce the number of people in a lab at the same time to avoid overcrowding.


Introducing more one-way flow through buildings, paying particular attention to long corridors which can be more common in laboratory buildings.


Reducing maximum occupancy for lifts, providing hand sanitiser for the operation of lifts and encouraging use of stairs wherever possible.


Making sure that people with disabilities are able to access lifts.


Regulating use of high traffic areas including corridors, lifts, turnstiles and walkways to maintain social-distancing.



Example lift practices.

Reviewer feedback on this answer:
This answer is about social distancing in general.  The question was meaning to be specific to labs and areas like that.
While answer is not all specific to labs and research facilities most of these guidelines could work for a lot of the same facilities.

Reviewer ratings:
Acceptable
Acceptable