Dr. Jiali Han partnered with Simon Property Group to help define the company’s policies for curbside pick-up and more than 45 mall and outlet center re-openings across the nation.
Simon Property Group is a commercial real estate company based in Indianapolis, and the largest shopping mall operator in the United States.
KERAMIDA Inc., an environmental engineering and consulting firm, drafted Simon’s policies and reached out to Dr. Han to provide senior epidemiologist review and approval in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The new strategies are designed to protect employees and customers from potential exposure by means of identification, evaluation, and control of COVID-19 transmission factors in the workplace,” Dr. Han said.
Details of the strategies cannot be disclosed due to legal restrictions, but Dr. Han shared that the plans are in alignment with local government orders and are based on public health best practices.
“We provided expertise and strategies that are easy to implement for all Simon Property Group operations nationwide,” he said.
The plans, which took two weeks to finalize, included internal strategies for employees, as well as guidelines to help customers stay safe.
“This is another example of how public health touches everyone’s life and every business.”
The curbside pick-up and mall reopening policies are in compliance with Governor Holcomb’s current stay-at-home order and can also be utilized in the future, should there be other public health crises.
Dr. Jiali Han is professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, and the Rachel Cecile Efroymson professor of cancer research at the IU Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center.
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