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COVID-19 Risk Assessment

 

Employees may have been exposed if they are in "close contact" of someone who is infected, which is defined as being within about 6 feet of a person with COVID-19 for a prolonged period of time:

  • Potentially exposes employees who have symptoms of COVID-19 should self-isolate and follow CDC recommended steps.
  • Potentially exposed employees who do not have symptoms should remain at home or in a comparable setting and practice social distancing for 14 days.
Sick employees should follow steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Employees should not return to work until they meet the criteria to discontinue home isolation and have consulted with a healthcare provider.

Employers should not require a sick employee to provide negative COVID-19 test result or healthcare provider's note to return to work. Employees with COVID-19 who have stayed home can stop home isolation and return to work when they have met one of the sets of criteria to return to work (no symptoms). 

As of July 20, 2020:

  • A test-based strategy is no longer recommended to determine when to discontinue home isolation, except in certain circumstances. 
  • Symptom-based criteria were modified as follows: 
  1. Changed from "at least 72 hours" to "at least 24 hours" have passed since last fever without the use of fever-reducing medications.
  2. Changed from "improvement in respiratory symptoms" to "improvement in symptoms" to address expanding list of symptoms associated with COVID-19. 
  • For patients with severe illness, duration of solation for up to 20 days after symptom onset may be warranted. Consider consultation with infection control experts.
  • For persons who never develop symptoms, isolation and other precautions can be discontinued 1- days after the date of their first positive RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. 


For more information: visit https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/guidance-risk-assesment-hcp.html

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