No need for workplaces to close or send home staff due to COVID case, says Health Ministry

 

The Health Ministry has said workplaces do not need to close or send home staff if an employee tests positive for COVID-19.

 

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jacquiline Bisasor McKenzie said that information is contained in the new draft workplace protocol being developed by the ministry.

 

She said if a worker tests positive, that person should remain at home for at least 14 days. 

 

"...(If) whatever workplace they're coming from has been observing all the workplace protocols and that person would have been in a mask at work, would have been hand sanitising as they move from area to area, then there is no need to close your business or to send home other workers," Dr. Bisasor McKenzie said Thursday at a Health Ministry press conference. 

 

If someone in the workplace is observed to be ill and to have a fever or respiratory symptoms, then that persons should be given a mask immediately and that person should be sent home. Now the area in which the person was should be wiped with a mild bleach solution and the surfaces wiped with disinfectant and alcohol. Now once this is done and the area is dry then that area is safe to be used," she advised.  

 

Dr. Bisasor McKenzie said the contacts of persons who have tested positive do not need to be sent home if they have been adhering to the infection prevention and control measures, such as wearing their masks and sanitising. 

 

"They are allowed to come to work, however, they must obey the instructions and the advice that have been offered from the workplace to say that they must adhere to all the infection prevention and control measures, and if they start to feel ill, they must stay home and report that they are ill," she explained.