Live at work: One Colombian company's take on reopening

As companies all over the world grapple with how best to bring their employees back as lockdown measures ease... one textile company in Colombia is taking a novel approach: offering employees to live at work.

The Hechizoo factory in capital Bogota, makers of high-end upholstery, has installed small, studio apartments. The goal: to cut back on the risk of employees picking up the coronavirus as they commute to and from work...and then spreading it to others.

Seamstress Nazly Penagos, was starting to go stir crazy at home when she got the call from her boss who gave her the option to move in. She says she has a little girl at home, and the last thing she wants is to get her kid sick from a potential exposure during her commute.

"It was cool to be called back to work because I said, 'I am going to work!' I was at home, desperate because every day it was the same thing - they called me from the workshop and I said, 'I'm ready, yes!'"

The company has installed bathrooms, a kitchen and beds to house eight of the 17 employees who have returned to work.

While installing living quarters is rare, sectors like construction, manufacturing and some retail have been allowed to gradually reopen by the government of President Ivan Duque, with limits on the numbers of employees.

Businesses told Reuters government authorizations to restart work have come slowly amid contradictory official announcements and fears customers will purchase little while they remain largely stuck at home and restricted to buying basics.

Creative Director Jorge Lizarazo says the idea was born out of necessity … and uncertainty about the virus that still has no cure.

"We decided to stay here permanently until we know what is going to happen."

Like so many others, not knowing what the future holds is wearing on him.

"It is the uncertainty that bothers me and the uncertainty for any company is fatal, not having the security of knowing what human resources I am going to have, what resources, what you order, what clients, that is what this virus has done. This virus, beyond infecting us with this terrible disease, has also infected our spirit, a little bit of not knowing where we are going, of not being certain where this world is going. "

Colombia's gradual reopening is similar to those taking place in Mexico, Argentina, Peru and Chile.

Around 1.6 million Colombians lost their jobs in March and the country's economy - usually one of the region's healthiest - is struggling, but companies like Hechizoo are hoping to give some impacted employees one less thing to keep them up at night …