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Standards Development
This document provides prevention and control guidelines for respiratory infectious diseases, applicable during the entire cycle of an event – its planning, operating, and evaluating stages - during a pandemic. The guidelines describe recommendations for each event stakeholder in terms of its roles and responsibilities at each stage of the cycle.
The event and exhibition industry has been an indispensable force in building global commercial networks, playing a central role in the development of domestic and international economies. It is the major power that opens the door to new markets for trade and for all sectors and sizes of business organizations.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been severely felt and reverberated throughout the industry. Lack of physical gatherings afforded by the industry has in part contributed to laggard recovery of the global economy. As the industry has started to reopen, it has taken various precautions to protect their employees, visitors and third-party personnel. Trade associations and ISO have been active in addressing the event safety by developing standards and recommendations.
For example, specific for the COVID-19 pandemic, ISO/PAS 5643:2021 Tourism and related services
— Requirements and guidelines to reduce the spread of Covid-19 in the tourism industry has been particularly instrumental for the prevention of COVID-19 for MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and events) tourism; ISO/PAS 45005:2020 Occupational health and safety management
– General guidelines for safe working during the COVID-19 pandemic provides comprehensive guidance pertaining to the safety of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. For planning responses to infection during an event, ISO 22320:2018 Security and resilience
– Emergency management
– Guidelines for incident management is valuable for its recommendations for planning incident management structures and processes. Generic to events but relevant to their safety, ISO 20121:2012 Event sustainability management systems
– Requirements with guidance for use defines components necessary for managing sustainable events. Events, when viewed as activities to be controlled within a larger setting, ISO/TS 22393 Security and resilience
– Community resilience
– Guidelines for planning recovery and renewal and ISO 22379 Security and resilience
– Guidelines for hosting and organizing citywide or regional events (to be published in September 2022) are relevant sources of references for this document. Trade associations and ISO have been active in addressing the event safety by developing standards and recommendations. For example, specific for the COVID-19 pandemic, ISO/PAS 5643: 2021 Tourism and related services
— Requirements and guidelines to reduce the spread of Covid-19 in the tourism industry has been particularly instrumental for the prevention of COVID-19 for MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and events) tourism; ISO/PAS 45005:2020 Occupational health and safety management
– General guidelines for safe working during the COVID-19 pandemic provides comprehensive guidance pertaining to the safety of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. For planning responses to infection during an event, ISO 22320:2018 Security and resilience
– Emergency management
– Guidelines for incident management is valuable for its recommendations for planning incident management structures and processes. Generic to events but relevant to their safety, ISO 20121:2012 Event sustainability management systems
– Requirements with guidance for use defines components necessary for managing sustainable events. Events, when viewed as activities to be controlled within a larger setting, ISO/TS 22393 Security and resilience
– Community resilience
– Guidelines for planning recovery and renewal and ISO 22379 Security and resilience
– Guidelines for hosting and organizing citywide or regional events (to be published in September 2022) are relevant sources of references for this document.
As noted above, ISO/PAS 5643:2021 and ISO/PAS 45005: 2020 have provided opportune guidelines for prevention and control of COVID-19 for MICE and workers. However, ISO standards do not exist that specifically target the event and exhibition industry. More importantly, as we are witnessing the spread of monkeypox, the event and exhibition industry is in need of the guidance that not only draws on the existing guidelines and recommendations for the COVID-19 pandemic, but also includes measures suitable for the prevention and control of infectious diseases. Infectious diseases are a global problem. Changes in demographics, technology and environment, the ease of international travel and commerce, and infectious agents themselves are contributing factors to the emergence of new diseases and re-emergence of diseases once considered under control [12]. And the likelihood of another infectious disease outbreak is only growing [13], which requires the stakeholders in the event and exhibition industry to adjust the perceptions of the risks and expectations for preparedness for infectious disease outbreaks. This document describes requirements and practical guidelines that support the industry’s stakeholders to ensure prevention and control of infection during an infectious disease outbreak, before, during and after the event.
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