How to Keep a Safe Workplace
By Alison Adduono, Director of Marketing Communication
With the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the workplace has undergone dramatic changes, with many employees being forced to work remotely during the worst of the pandemic. While some businesses have continued this model as the new norm, there are many that had their employees return to some level of presence in the workplace.
But returning to the office, factory, or other common workspace has also increased the risk of exposure to the virus of the day, week or month, often due to exposure to coworkers, customers, or the public. It has created a new requirement for corporate human resource teams in building policies, procedures, and test capabilities. By assessing risks and implementing safeguards to protect workers, employers can reduce the chances of OSHA citations, workers’ compensation claims, and potential lawsuits.
During the height of the pandemic, the National Safety Council (NSC) developed a program called SAFER (Safe Actions For Employee Returns) to help employers maintain safety as their team members returned to the workplace. The recommendations for workplace safety strategies were developed by a task force made up of government representatives, Fortune 500 companies, non-profits, and legal, public health, and medical professionals. In cooperation with OSHA, the NSC also supplies links to workplace safety resources. While the SAFER resource has not been updated for about a year, NSC is currently offering a tool to aid employers in calculating the cost savings of using COVID-19 mitigation efforts such as testing.
In addition to the NSC, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has also taken COVID-19 and other communicable diseases in the workplace very seriously. They provide their membership with exclusive updates, tools and resources to help navigate the pandemic.
In the workplace setting there are many opportunities for the virus to be spread from one individual to another. Conference rooms, lunchrooms, and even assembly lines are all prime culprits. Managing staff outages and shutdowns due to this highly transmissible virus weighs heavily on employers.
In some cases, employers look to Third Party Administrators (TPA’s) to educate and guide them on the best safety practices for the workplace. They may even use the TPA testing services or institute their own in-house testing program.
While we have all been tested at some point over the last few years whether out of fear of illness or requirement for a job, travel, or some activity we have wanted to attend, we have all become aware of the various types of tests available to us such as rapid antigen, PCR and other molecular rapid tests like RT-LAMP. While antigen tests do yield the quickest results, their accuracy is not all it is cracked up to be. Package inserts for the leading brands continue to recommend serial or sequential testing to confirm a prior result, and often recommend getting a molecular test to confirm a positive result. Ideally if a firm were testing its employees to prevent infections and keep the office open, a highly accurate molecular test (such as RT-LAMP) would be ideal. Much like PCR (but at a fraction of the price and a faster time to results), RT-LAMP technology is also a Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) that yields highly accurate results.
Anavasi’s AscencioDx® COVID-19 Molecular Diagnostic System utilizes RT-LAMP technology. When it becomes available, it will be able to provide molecular diagnostic test results in less than 30 minutes. Alongside our detector we will offer an exclusive secure data portal for managing and reporting test results.
During an early evaluation of our product, Clinical Reference Laboratory (CRL), a highly respected clinical laboratory providing high-complexity molecular diagnostic COVID-19 testing and toxicology services to its wide range of clients (from healthcare to employment, etc.), wrote this of their experience with the AscencioDx platform and assay:
“The system is very user-friendly and well-suited for urgent care clinics and occupational/workplace settings, as well as universities. The protocol is as simple as a rapid antigen test, yet the test has high specificity and sensitivity being a molecular assay.”
CDC Adjusts Its Recommendations
While separate recommendations still apply to healthcare settings, in August 2022 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) adjusted its guidance for COVID-19 preventative measures in the community and non-healthcare workplaces.
Here are their current recommendations:
Individuals that are exposed to COVID-19 should wear a high-quality mask for 10 days and get tested on day 5 instead of quarantining.
People with COVID-19 symptoms or who test positive are generally advised to isolate from others:
(1) regardless of vaccination status, individuals should isolate from others when they test positive (for at least five days based on their risk category) and wear a mask for at least ten days;
(2) if an individual is experiencing symptoms, they should get tested and isolate while they await the results – if the results are negative, isolation can be safely ended.
Immunocompromised individuals or those with moderate to severe COVID-19 illnesses should self-isolate for 10 days or potentially longer.
After an individual ends their isolation, if COVID-19 symptoms worsen or reappear, they should restart their isolation period.
Testing of asymptomatic people without known exposures in most non-healthcare settings will no longer be recommended.
With the changes in the CDC’s guidance, employers need to revisit their COVID-19 policies. Depending on the state, however, businesses may be required by law to continue to meet additional requirements. For instance, California, with its Cal/OSHA COVID-19 standards, maintains firmer state requirements that are at odds with evolving federal public health recommendations. It is important for employers to stay on top of state and local requirements regarding quarantine, isolation, worker removal, testing, leave accommodation, and vaccination.
New Workplace Testing Guidance Issued By The EEOC
In response to the CDC’s new recommendations, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) also updated its guidance for COVID-19 testing in the workplace. Previously, the EEOC required that conducting mandatory worksite COVID-19 testing met the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) standard that any mandatory medical test be “job related and consistent with business necessity.”
Now, however, the EEOC recommendation states that workplace testing is no longer automatically compliant with the ADA standard. As a result, when looking at the current state of the pandemic and individual workplace circumstances, employers will need to determine whether COVID-19 testing is a job-related business necessity.
The EEOC has identified several factors that employers can consider when deciding if they will conduct testing. Vaccination status of employees, potential impact on the workplace operations, and the level of contact between employees are just some of those factors.
This updated EEOC guidance covers everything from COVID-19 testing during the hiring process to job offers, vaccinations and much more. A great explanation of these stipulations is covered in the article EEOC Issues New Workplace Guidance Regarding COVID-19 Testing | Law and the Workplace.
For more information on the upcoming AscencioDx COVID-19 Molecular Diagnostic System and how it could be the best tool to help you maintain a safe and healthy workplace, please contact us at sales@anavasidx.com.
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