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04.09.2020 Newsletters Doerner

The Employer’s Legal Resource: CDC Issues Workplace Safety Guidance for Essential Workers Who May Have Had Exposure to COVID-19

Yesterday, the CDC published Interim Guidance for Implementing Safety Practices for essential workers who may have had exposure to a person with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. This guidance is designed to “ensure continuity of operations of essential functions.”

Obviously, those who are not critical infrastructure workers as designated by state and federal authorities (commonly referred to as essential workers) should remain home. But this Interim Guidance provides that essential workers who remain asymptomatic and may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 may continue working (or return to work) if they adhere to the following additional precautionary measures:

  • Pre-screening. Employers should take the employee’s temperature and assess symptoms before the employee starts work, ideally before the employee enters the building.
     
  • Regular Monitoring. Provided the employee does not have a temperature, the employee should self-monitor for symptoms (with the employer’s oversight).
     
  • Wear a Mask. An essential worker who may have been exposed to COVID-19 should wear a face mask at all times for 14 days following the most recent exposure.
     
  • Social Distancing. All employees—not just those who may have been exposed to COVID-19—should stay at least 6 feet away from others and maintain social distancing in the workplace, as work duties permit.
     
  • Disinfect and Clean Workspaces. Clean and disinfect all areas in the workplace—including offices, bathrooms, common areas, shared electronic equipment or machinery, in addition to workspaces directly used by the potentially exposed employee.

Other suggested actions include that employees should not share headsets, food or utensils, or other objects that are near an employee’s mouth or nose, that employers should increase the frequency of cleaning and disinfecting the workplace (especially commonly-touched surfaces), and that break times should be staggered so employees continue to physically distance during break times and do not congregate in the break room.

Most of these suggestions are not new and many employers may have already been utilizing these precautionary measures in the workplace. The CDC guidance is instructive particularly because it clarifies that essential workers who may have been exposed to COVID-19 may continue working and need not self-isolate in every circumstance, provided precautionary measures are being taken.

However, these employees should be sent home immediately if they become sick during the workday. Employers should compile information on all persons who had contact with an ill employee during the time the ill employee had symptoms and for up to 2 days prior to his/her symptoms appearing. Anyone at the workplace who had contact within 6 feet of the ill employee would be considered to have exposure, and the above recommendations should again be implemented.

By Rebecca D. Bullard, rbullard@dsda.com

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