COVID-19 Return-to-Work Standards

On April 15, 2020, David Sparkman of EHS Today, wrote about new guidance from the CDC regarding COVID-19.

I have abstracted it here for those reading this newsletter since you may have missed it.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently offered guidance for people returning to work who have been through the COVID-19 illness. The CDC had recommended that people self-isolate for 14 days after recovering from COVID-19. The CDC has now created two, more flexible standards for people returning to work after recovering from COVID-19. According to the CDC these recommendations will prevent most incidents of secondary spread of the virus.

Several requirements are still in effect:

• If an employee arrives at work showing COVID-19 symptoms, that
  person needs to be separated from other employees and sent home.
• If an employee becomes sick during the day, that person needs to be separated and sent home.

First, under the new guidance, when someone returns to work after the COVID-19 home isolation, the employer needs to:

• be sure that at least three days (72 hours) have passed since their recovery, meaning they have not run a fever without the use of fever-reducing medications,
• respiratory symptoms such as coughing and shortness of breath have improved,
• and at least seven days have passed since symptoms first symptoms first appeared.

OR

Second, if the employee is tested to determine if they are still contagious, they can also leave home after these three conditions have been met:

• The employee no longer has a fever without the use of fever reducing medication.
• Symptoms like coughing and shortness of breath have improved.
• The employee has received two negative tests in a row, 24 hours apart, when the patient’s doctor is following the CDC guidelines.

In all cases, the healthcare provider and local health department should be consulted.

If an employee tests positive for COVID-19, the employer needs to inform other employees of the possible exposure and keep track of whom they have talked with for disease tracking purposes by health officials.

Please pay very careful attention to and help employees who are over 60 and/or have some preexisting condition like a heart problem or diabetes since they are much more vulnerable to this highly contagious virus. About 85% of those who go into hospital are over 65 and about half of them die.

This is a very tough disease!