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On Wednesday, December 2, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised its recommended quarantine period for those who were in close contact with a person with COVID-19. The revised guidance, while still ideally recommending a 14-day quarantine period, now allows exposed individuals to end quarantine after 7 days with a negative test (collected within 48 hours of the last day of quarantine), or 10 days without a trial. This development will allow employers to bring exposed employees to the workplace much faster than before.
Until now, the CDC had recommended that those who come into close contact with an infected person isolate themselves for 14 days, the incubation period for COVID-19. (As we discussed in our October 2020 electronic update, the CDC recently redefined “close contact” to include exposure within 6 feet of a person infected with a cumulative – not only – total of 15 minutes or more within a 24 hour period). However, based on research progress, it appears that a person who contracts COVID-19 is most infectious during the initial 7/10 day period, with only a small increased risk of infection during the remainder of the incubation period.
Employers should review their return-to-work protocols according to the new recommendation. Based on the new recommendations, as well as other recent guidance from CDC, the following principles currently apply:
- Employees who have been in close contact With an infected individual, assuming they do not develop symptoms, you can return to work after a 7-day quarantine period with a negative test or a 10-day period without a test. However, given the recent increase in infections, employers must recognize that the availability of tests can be quite limited, which may result in the default 10-day period being applied.
- Upon release from quarantine, for the remainder of the 14-day period, those employees must continue to monitor symptoms, wear a mask or cover their face (which may be required by state or local order), remain at least 6 feet away from others, observe hand hygiene and other standard preventive steps.
- Employees who previously tested positive for COVID-19 There is no need to quarantine after close contact for a period of three months after recovering from infection, as we discussed in our August 2020 electronic update.
- And as we explained more recently in our November 2020 electronic update, workers in critical infrastructure industries can continue to function after exposure to COVID-19 (rather than quarantine) as long as they remain asymptomatic and subject to certain conditions, although the CDC states that this should be used only as a “last resort and only in limited circumstances, such as when the cessation of operation of a facility could cause serious damage or danger to public health or safety “.
Obviously, this is a constantly moving and ever-changing situation, and we will continue to send E-Lerts on any significant developments. You can also check out our COVID-19 FAQs, which are continually updated, frequently.
