COVID-19 standard operating procedure advancement for office building using indoor environmental quality elements

Abstract

COVID-19 guideline is expected to be part of the new norms for workplace. However, regarding COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued by Ministry of Health Malaysia, there is inadequate concentration on Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) parameters even it has been proven in various research that COVID-19 transmission spread actively in indoor environment and green elements could mitigate the virus transmission. Therefore, this study aims to enhance existing COVID-19 SOP by discovering sustainable COVID-19 framework for office building. Sets of questionnaires is distributed among employees at Menara Majlis Bandaraya Johor Bahru, Malaysia and analysed using Frequency Analysis and Cross Tabulation Analysis. Overall, result shows that EQ7 Air Change Effectiveness is the most important IEQ parameters that can be selected to improve the current COVID-19 SOP. This study is significant for building manager in workplace to enhance their current SOP by adding green elements which is IEQ parameters to reduce COVID-19 spread in workplace.