After having observed the first cases of illness in Italy and the following isolation measures, the coronavirus SARS-Cov-2, causing the severe respiratory illness COVID-19, became a subject of major concern in Europe during February 2020. The authorities reacted with public information campaigns with a focus on physical distance, hand hygiene and when to consult a doctor, and with a limitation of attendance to public events. CERN issued a travel ban to countries where the virus infections were widespread.
Unfortunately, the above non-invasive measures were insufficient to protect the population from widespread infection. In March, virus infections were recorded in CERN’s neighbourhood both in Switzerland and in France, including a few colleagues from CERN. Finally, mid-March the European governments decided, one after another, to follow suite to Italy and to order a general lockdown of public life and a de-facto quarantine of the population. CERN reacted by asking most of its personnel not to come on site and to telework from home. This measure was introduced mid-March and became compulsory on March 20th. In addition, the Schengen agreement, allowing free travel within a large portion of Europe, was temporarily suspended, leading to a closed border between France and Switzerland just outside of CERN’s Meyrin site.
These exceptional measures had an immediate impact on the HL-LHC project:
- No physical presence and therefore no technical work at CERN, other than what was indispensable for safety and security on the sites.
- Collaborators living outside of the region could no longer join CERN. Soon after, this became the case also for France, which enforced a strict lockdown.
- Lockdown measures in collaborators home countries also stopped progress with the project there
At CERN, we tried to organise the work as best as possible under the circumstances:
- Personnel in telework worked on studies, calculations, technical drawings and technical specifications, minimising the delays that the collaborations would have otherwise suffered.
- Meetings were virtualised, and in many cases their frequency was increased to give personnel the opportunity for informal exchanges and discussions that normally take place in corridors and cafeterias.
- The HL-LHC project office launched a series of Special Project Steering Meetings to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 for each work package.
- The Technical Coordination Committee took place virtually, with attendance from the collaborating institutions.
Many of these measures were made possible by the dedication of the personnel in CERN’s IT department, who made virtual collaboration software available and assured a smooth operation of the computer centre and its networks, on which CERN’s collaborative work was now entirely depending.
The lockdown measures in France and Switzerland proved effective and from the second half of April onwards we made plans for a start-up of activities at CERN. A date “t0” was fixed by the CERN directorate on 18th May, coinciding with the first relaxation of the exceptional measures in the two host states. This date marked the official start of physical activities on the CERN sites and in the accelerator tunnels, under strict application of physical distance measures to minimise the likelihood of infections at CERN. The ramp-up plan foresees a steady increase of activities from t0 onwards until mid-September, when we plan to come back to normal operations at CERN. The aim of the ramp-up plan is to populate the sites gradually, avoid clusters of persons and to train the physical distance measures until they become our second nature. For CERN, these measures include:
- Taking a compulsory training
- Wearing a chirurgical mask in all closed premises
- Keeping a physical distance of at least 2 metres between persons
- Taking mitigation measures where 2 metres distance cannot be achieved: separation screens made from acrylic glass in offices, face-shields at workstations in workshops and tunnels
A full account of the measures can be found on CERN’s website, with links to further information: https://cds.cern.ch/record/2718608/files/COVID-19_QuickRefGuide.pdf
Recently, CERN took stock of the effects that COVID-19 had on its accelerator and research schedules. The epidemic is not over and in many countries collaborating with CERN, restrictive measures are still in place. This means unavoidable delays in the schedules of most activities. The Director for Accelerators and Technology, Frederick Bordry, announced the provisional schedules during a virtual conference with all CERN personnel (link) on June 29th.
If you plan to come to CERN, you must check whether travel restrictions from your region of the world to and from CERN’s host states are still in place. While it is again possible to travel freely within the Schengen area, this is not the case with the home countries of all HL-LHC collaborators.
In order to access the CERN site, you must obtain an authorisation, which is given by the head of the department of the CERN group hosting you. COVID-19 prevention measures are mandatory, and you must abide by them once at CERN.
The evolution of the epidemic permitting, we hope to be able soon to welcome our world-wide collaborators again at CERN for activities which are impossible to virtualise. We will wear masks, keep a respectful distance but we will nevertheless work together on our HL-LHC project, assuring the next step of high-energy particle physics to the future.