As schools and even some public health departments give up on contact tracing, this is a great question. The OSHA General Duty Clause supersedes most other regulatory guidance at this point. So as an employer, you have a higher obligation to maintain a safe workplace. Unvaccinated employees should still be excluded for close contact (whether that contact took place inside or outside the workplace), and CDC guidelines still recommend that fully vaccinated people wear a mask for 10 days after close contact and test on Day 3-5. Beyond that, most employers aren’t doing any additional notification, testing, or guest contact tracing unless required by local regulations. We will continue to monitor and advise as we hear how others are changing their practices.
Yes. Unfortunately, reinfection is relatively common, especially now that Omicron is in the mix. If someone has multiple COVID symptoms, their vaccination status and prior infection don’t change that if they are actively sick, they may be infectious. It’s possible they have something other than COVID, like the flu, or it’s possible that they were reinfected. Either way, they can spread that to others while symptomatic, and should stay home from work.
Our clinical team asks three key questions for any employees who chat in to our Employee Wellness Check program with possible allergies. First: Do you have a history of allergies? If so, what are your typical allergy symptoms? Second: Do you typically suffer from allergies at this time of year? And third: Are you currently taking allergy medication? If so, does it completely relieve your symptoms?
If an employee doesn’t usually have allergies, if their symptoms differ from their typical allergy symptoms, or if medication usually relieves their allergies but hasn’t this time, those might be indications that their symptoms aren’t actually related to allergies. If their symptoms match their typical allergy symptoms, then we’re not too worried. If their symptoms aren’t new or changed, we don’t recommend keeping an employee home from work.
Requirements to check guest or customer vaccination are entirely separate from requirements for employee vaccination. You’ll need to check on your specific jurisdictions where you operate, but NYC is a good example where employee vaccination requirements remain in place (with little talk about that changing) while requirements to verify guest vaccinations were dropped.
Next Winter, What If We Test for Even More Viruses?
Today, instead of a best laugh, we’re asking you to consider donating to World Central Kitchen, an amazing organization that gets fresh meals to communities in need. Right now, they are working at border crossings all around Ukraine, providing hot meals to refugees.
ZHH has donated to WCK to support the work they are doing in Ukraine, in Madagascar after a devastating cyclone last month, and all across the world during and after disasters. We ask that you consider doing the same if you’re able.