Health leaders: We're asking American businesses to create #COVIDSafeZones. Here's how.

As the COVID-19 delta variant rips through the nation, we will need more energy in the private sector to beat this pandemic. That’s why leaders across party and sector have come together to rally American businesses to maximize vaccinations and take other steps to ensure a safe workplace.

We are at a crossroads in our efforts to address the delta wave and move beyond COVID-19. Roughly 165 million Americans – representing 58% of the eligible population – have been fully vaccinated, providing substantial protection against illness and death, while reducing missed workdays, closures and burdens on hospitals. Increasing vaccination rates is the country’s most immediate and best hope of reaching population immunity and restoring our national vitality and way of life.

It's a particularly critical time for the private sector, which employs 124 million and is the engine of American productivity and economic growth. Vaccinated people, while generally protected against the delta variant, especially from severe disease, can become infected and spread the virus to co-workers, families and communities. But its ease of transmission among unvaccinated individuals poses a more dangerous threat to workplace health and safety, business continuity, consumer confidence and the ability to serve clients.

America needs private sector help

Low vaccination levels propagate delta-driven outbreaks. This is an emerging competitive disadvantage for the United States compared with a growing number of industrialized nations with higher vaccination rates.

Those who remain unvaccinated are diverse, including people under 25, people living in rural and Southern communities, women of childbearing age, young Black and Latino men, and people who think they have immunity from prior infection. Many have legitimate questions and concerns about getting vaccinated that need to be respected and addressed. Most are employees, customers and suppliers of America’s businesses.

USA TODAY editorial: We tried asking nicely. It's time to mandate COVID vaccines for some.

Because of the impact of business actions at this critical time, we have come together with public health and science experts and former officials from both political parties to ask American businesses to create #COVIDSafeZones – commonsense, achievable and temporary measures for any private sector enterprise with minimal disruption and major benefits for workplaces and the country.

First, because maximizing vaccination is so critical to the protection of the nation’s workforce, a growing number of employers now require vaccination with medical and religious exceptions. This is the best way to protect workers and customers where there is frequent close contact with many individuals who may be infected. In health care settings, we urge vaccination for anyone who comes in contact with patients. High vaccination rates also provide a greater assurance of safety in other high-risk settings, where distancing or reduced contact is not possible.

If a vaccination requirement is not an option, we recommend these clear steps:

►Infection screening protocol. Require a protocol for employees and regular visitors (not retail customers) to be routinely screened with a rapid test, typically twice weekly. Repeated negative tests provide a high degree of certainty that the individual is not infectious. More frequent testing should be done in higher-risk settings where appropriate and practical. States have used COVID-19 funds to help cover screening costs for small businesses and nonprofits.

►Proof of vaccination. Allow anyone who provides proof of full vaccination (accounting for the appropriate time period after the final vaccine) to bypass the routine testing requirement.

►Incentives for vaccination. Offer cash incentives to employees, including cash payments and paid leave to get vaccinated. Offer easy access to vaccination where possible.

►Mask use. Follow the latest recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which advises face coverings in public indoor settings in substantial or high prevalence zones. Where masks are needed, N95s or their equivalents offer the highest level of protection. The steps we have described can reduce the need for masks in controlled environments.

Public safety and personal liberty

These recommendations are not a broad vaccination mandate. We believe they are consistent with established precedent and any state laws that prohibit broad vaccination requirements in places of business.

They are also temporary measures until we are reliably back to low COVID-19 rates and the public health threat is behind us. They can be combined with other steps, such as improved ventilation and distancing.

Memo to unvaccinated states: Surging COVID-19 isn't a magnet for jobs and investment

We recognize any protocols create some burden and cost for businesses and their employees. Still, these will be relatively modest compared with the significant cost of ongoing disruption and uncertainty in business productivity and people’s lives. A growing number of businesses and governments at all levels have already taken these steps. More are moving forward now, including Baptist Health and Kaiser Permanente, building momentum for more businesses to join.

Beating this pandemic won’t happen through actions by federal, state and local governments alone. Private sector leaders have a critical role to play now to move our country forward together, support their workers and communities, and respect both public safety and individual liberty.

Dr. Mark McClellan, a professor and founding director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University, headed the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for President George W. Bush. Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt), the author of "Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response," was President Joe Biden's White House senior adviser for COVID response until June and ran the Affordable Care Act and CMS from 2015 to 2017 for President Barack Obama. John Bridgeland (@JohnMBridgeland), co-founder and CEO of the COVID Collaborative, was director of the Bush White House Domestic Policy Council.

Public health experts, scientists and former elected officials of both parties who have signed an open letter urging America's private sector leaders to implement #COVIDSafeZones:

Jerome M. Adams, former U.S. Surgeon General

Barbara D. Alexander, President, Infectious Diseases Society of America, and

Professor of Medicine and Pathology, Duke University

Melody Barnes, former Director, White House Domestic Policy Council

Georges C. Benjamin, Executive Director, American Public Health Association

David Brailer, former National Coordinator for Health Information Technology

John Bridgeland, Co-Founder and CEO, COVID Collaborative, and former director, White House Domestic Policy Council

Robert M. Califf, Professor of Cardiology, Duke School of Medicine and former Food and Drug Administration commissioner

Raymond G. Chambers, Co-Founder, COVID Collaborative, and WHO Ambassador for Global Strategy

Michael Crow, President, Arizona State University

Tom Daschle, former U.S. senator (D-S.D.) and former Senate Majority Leader

Carlos del Rio, Professor, Emory University School of Medicine, and International Secretary, National Academy of Medicine

Mark Dybul, Co-Director, Georgetown Center for Global Health and Impact; former executive director, Global Fund for AIDS, Malaria, TB; and former U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator

Gary Edson, President, COVID Collaborative, and former Deputy National Security

Adviser

Julio Frenk, President, University of Miami and former Minister of Health, Mexico

Tom Frieden, President and CEO, Resolve to Save Lives, and former director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

William H. Frist, former U.S. senator (R-Tenn.) and former Senate Majority Leader

Margaret (Peggy) Hamburg, former FDA commissioner and former Foreign Secretary of the National Academy of Medicine

Mike Leavitt, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and former governor and U.S. senator (R-Utah)

Stephen Massey, Managing Director, Health Action Alliance

Mark McClellan, director, Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, former FDA commissioner and former CMS administrator

Lauren Ancel Meyers, Professor, University of Texas at Austin

Deval Patrick, former governor (D-Mass.)

Caitlin Rivers, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security

Kathleen Sebelius, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and former governor (D-Kan.)

Andy Slavitt, former senior adviser to COVID-19 Response Coordinator and former acting CMS administrator

Robert M. Wachter, Chairman, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

Michelle Williams, Co-Founder, COVID Collaborative and Dean, Harvard T.H. Chan

School of Public Health

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID Safe Zones at American businesses can help us end the pandemic