QUICK STEPS:
Isolate: Instruct persons who show symptoms, have tested positive for COVID-19, or who have been identified as in "close contact" to a confirmed case during their infectious period, to isolate at home and schedule a test on Day 6 after exposure if asymptomatic, immediately if sympotomatic.
Report: Employers are legally required to report positive cases to the County Public Health Department at www.sccsafeworkplace.org within 4 hours of learning of a positive case. A "Workplace Contact Tracing Form" should be sumbitted and updated with all newly emerging cases.
Notify UVFM of ongoing situation as it relates to market absence and communication with customers; Specify if the case's infectious period overlapped with staff attending markets, and what plans are in effect for containment so that we can determine together an appropriate time for returning to markets.
Confirmation: Vendors are not permitted to attend nor return to UVFM markets until a written confirmation has been sent to info@uvfm.org stating that all CDPH protocols, as outlined below, have been met and containment has been achieved.
RETURN TO WORK GUIDE
2021 Updated recommendations made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and California Department of Public Health (CDPH), guidelines for the return to work after a positive COVID-19 exposure should be determined using the following:
Time- and Symptom-Based Approach:
1. Individuals who have had symptoms AND test positive for COVID-19, may only return to work when all criteria are met:
- 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared,
- AND at least 24 hours have passed with no fever (without use of fever-reducing medications)
- AND all other symptoms have improved.
2. Individuals who never had symptoms AND test positive for COVID-19, may only return to work:
- 10 days after the date of their first positive test was collected for COVID-19.
3. Individuals who have had symptoms AND test negative for COVID-19, should remain at home until at least 24 hours after resolution of fever (if any) and improvement in other symptoms.
4. Individuals who had close contact and who develop symptoms before Day 10, must:
- Remain in quarantine for at least 10 days from start of symptoms
- AND until 24 hours after fever resolution and improvement in other symptoms, whichever is longer,
- even if a test result is negative.
5. Individuals who had close contact but do not show symptoms may only return to work:
- 10 days after the date of last exposure, but should continue monitoring for symptoms for a full 14 days.
Infectious Period begins at least 48 hours before any symptoms appear, (many never display symptoms at but can still infect others), or at least 2 days prior to the date the positive test was taken (which ever came first)
Close Contact is someone who was within 6ft of a Covid-19 infected person for 15 min or more (masked or unmasked) or cumulatively over a 24 hour period during the Infectious Period.
3rd hand contact is someone who came into contact with a "Close Contact". A 3rd hand contact is not automatically considered "exposed" and does not necissarily need to be reported or quarantined, unless the "close contact" becomes confirmed. Until then, close observation is recommended, but isolation is up to the descretion of the particular situation.
Preventative Testing. CA Dept of Public Health recommends that any front line worker who regularly interacts with members of the public and cannot maintain "social distancing" at work should ideally get tested once a month. This includes grocery and farmers market staff.
PR Transparency It is the belief of UVFM that honesty further stregthens trust between our businesses, our staff, and our customers. If a suspecected or confirmed case occurs big enough to suspend operations for a week or two, we strongly advise to use your social media channels to post a simple and truthful message letting the community know that your company takes safety very seriously and is taking every precaution to clean facilities, isolate cses, and get all staff tested. Please tag or forward UVFM with your message so that we can help amplify it on our page as well.
Time-based approach. No study to date has found contagious "live virus" beyond 9 days of illness, and the tests do not distinguish between live and dead viruses.
For more details, please visit www.sccstayhome.org
Additional work locations with distinct return to work policies may be found here: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/phdp/Diseases/novel-coronavirus/Documents/Home-Isolation-Quarantine-Guidelines.pdf
Version date: 12/10/2020*