Returning Employees to Work
The CPP should include guidelines that clarify when employees may return to work after they have tested positive for COVID-19 or had exposure at work.
Generally, a COVID-19 case may return to work when any of the following occur:
- For employees with symptoms, all of these conditions should be met:
- At least 24 hours have passed since a fever of 100.4 or higher has resolved without the use of fever-reducing medications;
- COVID-19 symptoms have improved; and
- At least 10 days have passed since COVID-19 symptoms first appeared
- For employees without symptoms, at least 10 days have passed since the COVID-19 case’s first positive test
- If a licensed health care professional determines the person is not/is no longer a COVID-19 case.
Options to Reduce Quarantine
According to the CDC, reducing the length of quarantine may make it easier for people to quarantine by reducing the time they cannot work. A shorter quarantine period also can lessen stress on the public health system, especially when new infections are rapidly rising.
Your local public health authorities make the final decisions about how long quarantine should last, based on local conditions and needs. Follow the recommendations of your local public health department if you need to quarantine. Options they will consider include:
- stopping quarantine after day 10 without testing; or
- after day 7, after receiving a negative test result (test must occur on day 5 or later)
See Options to Reduce Quarantine for Contacts of Persons with SARS-CoV-2 Infection Using Symptom Monitoring and Diagnostic Testing for guidance on options to reduce quarantine.
Return-to-Work Criteria
- COVID-19 cases with COVID-19 symptoms will not return to work until all the following have occurred:
- At least 24 hours have passed since a fever of 100.4 or higher has resolved without the use of fever-reducing medications.
- COVID-19 symptoms have improved.
- At least 10 days have passed since COVID-19 symptoms first appeared.
- COVID-19 cases who tested positive but never developed COVID-19 symptoms will not return to work until a minimum of 10 days has passed since the date of specimen collection of their first positive COVID-19 test.
- A negative COVID-19 test will not be required for an employee to return to work.
- If an order to isolate or quarantine an employee is issued by a local or state health official, the employee will not return to work until the period of isolation or quarantine is completed, or the order is lifted. If no period was specified, then the period will be 10 days from the time the order to isolate was effective or 14 days from the time the order to quarantine was effective.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
3-8. Before an employee who had symptoms of COVID-19 can return to work, at least 24 hours should have passed since symptoms have improved, and _____.
You forgot to answer the question!