Yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control eased its guidelines for COVID precautions, which is good news for workplaces. The CDC is shifting the onus of quarantine and vaccination status to individuals. Noting that COVID is here to stay, the agency is meeting the virus where it is now. The divide between vaccinated and unvaccinated is not the focus anymore because of the level of immunity that exists and medical therapies for the virus.

Here is the breakdown:

• Social distancing not recommended
• Regular testing of unvaccinated employees not advised
• Employer contact tracing not required
• If a positive test:
  • Isolate for 5 days
  • After five days, if you are fever-free for 24 hours without medication, and symptoms are improving, or you never had symptoms, you may end isolation after day five.
  • Avoid contact with people at high risk for COVID-19 until at least day 11.
  • You should wear a high-quality mask through day ten
• Keep an eye on COVID-19 in your area to determine if these new guidelines work

What should you do now? Remind employees that this easing of restrictions does not mean coming to work with COVID-19 is allowed. Also, our state, local and industry guidelines and regulations may be more stringent.