COVID-19 Briefing - 8/14

New saliva tests, changes in testing, and more.

August 17, 2020

Today’s Recap:

Although we still have not seen foodborne transmission , COVID-19 was found on frozen chicken wings
As many anticipated, the US DOL now says Employees Who Refuse to Work May Be Eligible for Unemployment Benefits
Companies are testing antibody treatments which is an exciting breakthrough to be used post-exposure or for those at high risk, while we wait for a vaccine.
Some big players roll out business-to-business coronavirus testing but the limitations in availability and per test costs are daunting.
COVID 19 was worse than the 1918 Flu in NYC, according to a new study by Emory University. They found the mortality rate averaged 20x higher than a typical flu season in NY in the early days of COVID-19 and overall even higher than in 1918.
As different industries look at re-opening, they’re each coming up with their own guidelines and sometimes creating new barriers for themselves. One example: the NFL is saying no one can work in any stadium who has taken Tylenol or Advil in the last 48 hours, concerned that it can hide a fever.
A medical center in Israel claimed to have developed a new saliva test that can diagnose COVID-19 in less than a second.
Confirming what we all already knew, Dr. Fauci confirmed that temperature checks are "notoriously inaccurate" -- especially in the summer.
Staff shortages in nursing homes was one predictor of local COVID-19 spread. The lesson here about the impact of short staffing applies to every industry.
And again, confirming what we have known for a long time, the WHO says not to worry about getting the coronavirus from food packaging.

Best Questions:

My employee received a positive rapid test and then went and got tested again the next day and tested negative. Can I assume the first test was a false negative and return her to work?

Unfortunately, the answer is no. Although false negatives are far more common than false positives, it is as likely that she was tested at different points in her viral load. And viral loads don’t rise and fall in a smooth curve. The first test may have been at the very beginning of her illness, she might have had a very short infectious period, or it may have been at the end of her illness. We just have no way of knowing. And a footnote, in a real case: a close contact tested positive four days later so we can only assume the first positive was accurate.

Many kids and teachers are getting tested as part of the return to work process. Will answering yes to the “tested” question on the daily wellness check result in the employee being excluded?

Great question (and really timely). The answer is no - return to school testing, return to work testing, regular testing for another job and curiosity testing should not exclude an employee from work unless they are reporting symptoms or close contact.

An employee failed the daily wellness check but went to work anyway. Do we need to exclude everyone who worked today?

Until the employee has either a presumptive diagnosis of COVID or tests positive, you don’t necessarily need to exclude anyone else. You do need to tighten up on following your work exclusions, though! Some clients require a manager swipe before an employee can clock in to prevent this from happening.

An employee was excluded five days ago for fever over 100, diarrhea and bad headache, still has symptoms, but never tested for COVID. Their roommate tested positive today. Do we start their exclusion over to 14 days?

Sadly, the answer is yes. Unless the employee had been tested and tested positive, you can’t assume their illness was COVID. The health department would absolutely tell you that this employee needed to be excluded as if they’re a close contact, even though there is some high likelihood the roommate got COVID from them. We know this is really frustrating for managers who are trying to staff. Until there is better, more available, affordable and accurate testing, employees are not always going to go get tested.

Employee has been out for 27 days, testing negative, still has a cough. Manager would like to know if we can request a doctor's note to come back or does he have to always be out while he has a cough?

This is a question we’re getting many times every day. The optics of returning someone to work post-COVID who is still coughing isn’t good. It makes coworkers and customers, understandably, uncomfortable. It’s also difficult to wear a mask while coughing. In this case, we’d request a doctor’s note.

Best Read:

‍COVID-19 testing is complicated and this week, Texas reported a huge drop in requested tests as patients say “why bother?”, but a huge jump in % positive (something like 25%). Understanding what’s happening with testing, why, and what we need to do to fix it is crucial.