CDC releases guidelines for essential workers exposed to COVID-19
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released guidelines for essential workers who might have been exposed to COVID-19 about returning to work.
If an essential worker remains asymptomatic after potential exposure to COVID-19, such as household contact or being within 6 feet of someone suspected or confirmed of having COVID-19, that worker may return to work.
“The timeframe for having contact with an individual includes the period of time of 48 hours before the individual became symptomatic,” according to the CDC.
The CDC website lists practices essential workers who had exposure but remain asymptomatic should follow before and during their work shift: pre-screen, regular monitoring, wearing a mask, social distancing and disinfecting and cleaning work spaces.
The CDC states that pre-screening should include taking the employee's temperature before work.
The CDC list states essential workers should wear masks for 14 days after the possible exposure. Cloth face coverings will do if masks are hard to get, the agency says.
The CDC website also lists additional considerations such as not sharing headsets, testing that wearing a mask doesn't disrupt work assignments, staggering break times with other employees, and more.
Dr. Bridget Gruender, owner of Liberty Family Medicine, said these CDC guidelines are set based on the information about COVID-19 that’s readily available.
Gruender said that information is evolving daily, sometimes even hourly, and medical trials of drug treatments are ongoing.
“I think that those guidelines are really good," Gruender said. "Three days after you're recovered or seven days after the symptoms started, but other than that, I mean, again, it's just one of those things where we're going with what we have right now.”
ABC 17 News asked Gruender if masks are more of a recommendation or a requirement. Gruender said for the general population it's a recommendation.
“The difficult thing with that recommendation again is that a lot of people don't understand how to do that correctly,” Gruender said. “So if you're going to wear gloves and a mask, and then you're going to use those gloved hands to touch your face and get stuff out of your pocket and touch a bunch of different surfaces, that's not any different than just using your hands and washing them.”
Gruender stressed the importance of the original guidelines: "wash your hands and don’t touch your face."
“Those are still really really good guidelines for everyone to follow,” she said.
Gruender said the most important course of action to slow down COVID-19 is following stay-at-home orders, including the statewide mandate that took effect Monday.
“That's one of the biggest things that's pushed,” Gruender said. “Individuals are not taking this seriously enough, they're not staying home. And they're not following the guidelines that are set forth.”
Stay up to date on this developing story here and on ABC 17 News at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.
