What to do if an employee has COVID19
I was blessed to be able to get this information directly from Dr Jeanette Young the Chief Health Officer for Queensland while working with her as part of the Supply Task Force.
This information can be used to help you to take action in your facility and minimise the impact if you have a confirmed case.
Dr Young’s message was clear:
The most important thing is that if workers feel unwell for any reason what so ever, they shouldn’t be going to work.
All workplaces need to have a process in place that workers understand that if they are not unwell, they don’t come to work. It's that simple.
Employers, you can ring 13 HEALTH at any time if you need advice. But please be assured that if there is ANY chance that there might have been transmission in the workplace, the local public health unit will call the workplace contact person.
What happens if someone tests positive for coronavirus
If one of your workers is a confirmed case, these are the steps that will happen.
The Local Public Health Unit will speak to the worker, and the workplace to determine who has been in contact with the person.
'Contact' is defined as 15 minutes of close contact or 2 hours working in the same room with the confirmed case. Any of your workers that fit these categories for they will be required to go into quarantine for two weeks.
Contact tracing will go back 24 hours BEFORE their first symptom.
Any decisions around business closures and cleaning will be made in conjunction with the workplace. If this happens, you will receive help to manage it.
What you can do to minimise risk and impact on your business
Eliminate close contact among people as much as possible.
Avoid having high numbers of workers in the same room for more than 2 hours, in particular workers who have a similar skill set.
Review the skills and expertise of your workers and do what you can to reduce the interaction between workers with similar skill sets.
Things are moving very quickly on this to be sure to keep abreast of updates. Visit the Australian Government Health Department website for further advice: https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-what-you-need-to-know