What happens if an employee at a manufacturing facility comes into contact with a person who tests positive to the virus or has symptoms?
In this situation, Dr. Cohn said that the person who is exposed to an infected person may be asked by public health officials to stay home for 14 days and any cleaning recommendations would only occur if that person became ill.
What are the recommendations for employees who traveled but do not show illness?
According to Dr. Cohn, employees returning from countries with level 3 travel advisories, such as China, Iran, Japan, and Europe, should self isolate at home for 14 days. Upon returning from travels, she urged people to heed the advice from the Department of Homeland Security or quarantine staff in airports or after cruises and hoped that employers would support those recommendations.
Time to Work Together
Dr. Cohn underscored a collective role for businesses and organizations to help support the community during what she termed one of the hardest public health issues facing the U.S. “One of the important things to start highlighting is what people can start doing for each other during this time and how our businesses and organizations can help support the community through this,” she said. Community mitigation strategies are part of this, she said, and include practicing careful personal hygiene, reporting any symptoms, and leaving work with any onset of symptoms.
“This is where I strongly recommend companies look to local and state health departments for guidance,” she said, such as spreading out employees in work space, staggering work time, and reducing gatherings and interactions of persons. For example, for employees on assembly lines, guidance could be to clean work stations between shifts. Given the current and projected spread of the disease, Dr. Cohn said that she is “starting to shift to say we need to minimize and mitigate the social and economic and burden that these community mitigation factors will have on individuals” and “we’ll rely on organizations and businesses to help with that.”
For questions regarding issues such as what to do if an employee comes in contact with a person infected with COVID-19 or what procedures to follow to clean personal protective equipment used by a person exposed to or diagnosed with COVID-19, CDC advises food manufacturers to to seek and follow guidance from local and state health departments.
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