The Coronavirus outbreak is affecting all of us in many ways, and everyone is struggling to keep up with fast-unfolding events. One recent, major development is the decision by some cities and states to “lock-down” and enforce everyone staying at home to slow the spread of COVID-19. All businesses in these areas, not just bars and restaurants, are being forced to close, relying entirely on tele-work. Where these lock-downs have been implemented, a list of exempt businesses has been published to allow certain well-defined businesses to continue to operate. These lists always include healthcare providers, supermarkets, pharmacies, telecommunications providers, and similar. Guidance on which companies qualify as “critical infrastructure businesses” is provided by the Department of Homeland Security here: https://www.cisa.gov/identifying-critical-infrastructure-during-covid-19.
Please indicate to us if your company is a “critical infrastructure” business, in which case we will prioritize your employee ID badges, over standard orders, whenever our capacity is strained.
Exempt companies that provide critical infrastructure services need to ensure that their employees can get to work, and that they can justify to the authorities their need to be out and about. While an authorization letter may be sufficient, the most effective manner of doing this is a professional, fraud-resistant photo ID card designating the person as an employee of a company whose services are essential throughout the crisis. As a result, as America’s leading provider on online photo ID cards, InstantCard has found itself playing a small but crucial rose in our nation’s response to the Covid-19 epidemic.
In the last few weeks, InstantCard has seen a substantial spike in the number of identification badges produced, as orders have flowed in from clients that realize they need to provide a professional proof of employment to their staff members to allow them to come to work during any Coronavirus lockdown period. And the number of new clients signing up for our service has been much higher than normal, as many companies realize they need to quickly implement a high-quality photo ID card program for all their employees who need to be able to work during the Coronavirus outbreak.
Most of these clients have been part of our traditional client base for years: senior care facilities, police and fire departments, home health care providers, network infrastructure companies, etc. But a wider range of companies are realizing the in this age of “social distancing”, when face-to-face encounters are being minimized, ensuring that someone is properly identified has become more critical than ever. Clients are already reporting that staff members are increasingly being questioned by police when driving about to/from the job. Police are very aware of the need to allow Critical Infrastructure businesses to operate efficiently during the Covid-19 outbreak, but they also are trying to ensure that the public respects the quarantine directives.
So, with all of that in mind, we’d ask that you please indicate to InstantCard (email [email protected]) if your company is a “critical infrastructure” business, in which case we will prioritize your orders for Coronavirus identification badges over standard orders, whenever our capacity is strained. So far, we have been able to continue to deliver our commitment of same-day turnaround on all identification badge orders. But, if there is a peak, we will ensure that critical Coronavirus ID cards get out first. We, ourselves, are a “critical infrastructure” business, and we will be producing cards on a daily basis throughout the crisis.
If you have any questions about formatting your ID cards to meet the requirements of authorities, or whether your company falls within the guidelines, don’t hesitate to call us on our toll-free line, or contact us through our contact form.
