What Do You Do When Your Employee Answers Positively to Screening Questionnaire?
/It is Tuesday morning, coffee in hand, and you settle in behind your desk. The phone rings. The person responsible for tracking the employee COVID-19 questionnaires calls to tell you that one of your employees answered positively to one of the COVID-19 screening questions.
The first thing that has to happen is that employee must be denied access to the building, then provide the person with information on healthcare and testing resources, and then sent home with instructions to contact their local health department.
The next thing you need to do is notify New York State Department of Health and your local health department.*
New York State Coronavirus Hotline: 888.364.3065
Suffolk County Department of Health Services: 631.787.2200
Nassau County Health Department: Coronavirus Hotline 516.227.9570
New York City Department of Health: 311
Westchester County Department of Health: 866.588.0195
Rockland County COVID-19 Hotline: at 845.238.1956
Then the questions start...
Does the employee need to self-quarantine for 14 days? Or, isolate for at least 10 days?
What’s the difference between quarantine and isolation? And, when does the clock start on the quarantine/isolation – when the contact/symptoms occurred or when the screening was completed?
Do you have to pay the employee while absent from work?
Finally, what if the employee is essential – is there a way to come back sooner?
The answer to all these questions is, wait for it… it depends.
Isolation and quarantine are public health practices used to protect the public by preventing exposure to people who have or may have a contagious disease. Isolation separates sick people with a contagious disease from people who are not sick.
Quarantine separates and restricts the movement of people who were exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick.
If the person had close or proximate contact (within 6 feet for at least 10 minutes) with a person with COVID-19 for a prolonged period of time AND IS experiencing symptoms – they will need to isolate for at least 10 days.
The clock starts when your employee becomes symptomatic. So, if the person told the person responsible for tracking the COVID-19 questionnaires on Monday morning that they started feeling sick on Saturday, the clock for the 10-day isolation period started ticking on Saturday.
Assuming the employee remains asymptomatic during isolation, they can return to work the following Tuesday.
If the employee had close or proximate contact with a person with COVID-19 for a prolonged period of time AND IS NOT experiencing symptoms – they must quarantine for at least 14 days. So, if there was close contact with someone with COVID- 19 last Friday night, then the 14-day self-quarantine period starts Monday morning – the day the questionnaire was completed.
An employee that is essential to the operation of your dealership can get back to work sooner if there are no symptoms. However, you’ll have to jump through some hoops to make this happen, including getting the state and local health departments to agree. Instructions are available here.
No matter how many employees you have, all jobs are protected and must be available upon returns from isolation/quarantine.
Obviously, a positive response to any of the COVID-19 screening questions is unfortunate for your employee, inconvenient for your business and worrisome for you on many levels, but following the guidance and being patient will help keep your dealership in compliance.
*Note: You should not disclose the reason the worker is being sent home to others. Health information is confidential and should not be disclosed to other employees.
Should you have questions, please contact GNYADA’s Dealer Hotline at 718.746.5900.
