What North Shore Businesses Must Do If A Worker Has Coronavirus

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Social media on the North Shore was abuzz Tuesday night with concerns shared among many who work with the public, go shopping at local stores or get food from restaurants during the coronavirus pandemic.

The post about an employee at a Swampscott business being allowed to work after testing positive for the virus clearly struck a nerve.

Swampscott Public Health Director Jeff Vaughan told Patch Wednesday morning he investigated the claim and found "it was not correct."

But he did share the extensive protocols that businesses in the town must follow — and should all be aware of — in the case of an infected employee or customer.

"All Swampscott businesses that we have email contact with have recently received it," Vaughan said.

The guidelines lay out specific actions that must be taken in the event of a positive test and examples of how retail businesses and restaurants must react and notify the Board of Health for contact tracing.

Restaurants are not required, however, to inform customers of any positive case that might have been present while they were there.

"The state guidance for restaurants is set up so the server or any other staff should never have enough time around a patron to be considered a close contact, and they will always be wearing a mask," Vaughan told Patch. "So notifying the public should not be a concern.

"There is no requirement for the business to notify patrons unless there was a large outbreak and there were close contacts that the facility did not have the ability to contact."

With rising apprehensions among some amid the recent surge in cases on the North Shore, here are some of the steps businesses are required to take to keep you safe.

The five steps are: Isolate, Quarantine, Notify, Clean, Review.

ISOLATE

Any employee who is experiencing illness symptoms should isolate immediately away from the business. The employee should then isolate at home for at least 10 days from the onset of symptoms or their positive coronavirus test if they are asymptomatic.

The employee can return to work 10 days later if symptoms have improved and they have been without a fever for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications.

The example given is of an employee who is asymptomatic when tested on Dec. 5 and the test returns positive on Dec. 7. The employee has mild symptoms on Dec. 7 that last until Dec. 9. Under that scenario, the employee is eligible to return to work on Dec. 16 since 10 days have passed since the test and symptoms have subsided.

A contact tracer may also call the employee to determine what other close contacts should quarantine as a result.

QUARANTINE

While the employee is isolating, any other employees, customers or clients who were close contacts of that person within two days of them developing symptoms must quarantine.

A close contact is anyone who was within 6 feet of the infected employee — regardless of whether they were masked or behind a partition — for a total of 15 minutes over a 24-hour period of time.

While employers are required to identify close contacts, they may not reveal the identity of the person who tested positive because of medical privacy laws.

Close contacts must monitor themselves for symptoms and seek a test if they develop symptoms. Close contacts should also take care to stay away from others in their own household in case they are infected and asymptomatic.

Asymptomatic close contact employees can take a coronavirus test on the fifth day after their contact with the infected employee. If that test is negative, they can return to work on the seventh day removed from the contact.

Close contact employees who choose not to take a coronavirus test after five days must quarantine for 10 days and can return to work on the 11th day if they never developed symptoms.

Close contact employees who develop any symptoms must quarantine a full 14 days even if they have a negative coronavirus test.

NOTIFY

Businesses must notify the Swampscott Board of Health of positive tests and close contacts.

For the infected employee, a log of when that employee developed symptoms, tested positive and when was the last time that person was at the restaurant, store or worksite must be given to the Board of Health.

For close contacts, the contact information and date of that person's last contact with the infected employee must be given to the Board of Health.

This is required to happen within 24 hours of the business learning of the positive employee test.

The Board of Health is authorized to obtain confidential, medical information about the employees.

CLEAN

The workplace must close if the infected employee has been on site within the past seven days.

Ideally, a business should wait 24 hours, then "deep clean" the restaurant, store or worksite before reopening.

The business does not have to close if it has been longer than seven days since the infected employee was on site. It should then adhere to regular sanitizing protocols.

REVIEW

All businesses are required to review safety protocols with employees and look for ways they can socially distancing themselves at a restaurant, store or worksite.

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