29/11/2020
Whilst Santa has been exempted from COVID travel regulations in most countries for his 1 night world home deliveries, this year is his biggest challenge. In England, his deliveries are allowed under current Coronavirus guidance for home deliveries. However, advice has been given to Santa recommending he minimises contact wherever possible and have single workers load and unload his vehicle. Concern has already been expressed concerning Santa's Occupational Health risks in a paper published in 2015 which put him into the "at risk" COVID category. Santa's backup workers are facing a logistical nightmare bigger than Amazon in getting all the presents in the right locations before the night whilst minimising any health risks to Santa as he travels worldwide. We have heard that local fulfilment locations staffed by Santa's socially distanced helpers may be setup to meet this year's challenges. We have offered the Day Nursery as a suitable location for their use. There is no risk to local airports as we understand that Santa has CAA airspace approval as he flies higher than controlled airspace and any risk of mid-air collisions are minimised by the reindeers whiskers and sense of smell whilst briefly transiting controlled airspace. Sleigh flights are therefore possible from our location, so if you see any abnormal activity in the area before Christmas, particularly at night...............
Previous publications in the field of Santa studies have not focused on health and safety issues arising from Santa’s workplace activities. However, it should be acknowledged that unique occupational hazards exist for Santa Claus. Major occupational ...