Once discharged from isolation, no need for COVID-free proof to return to work – official

If you were discharged from isolation facilities or home isolation, you do not need to present another negative test result to your employer to return to work, a senior public health official again stressed on Wednesday, in the face of some employers’ stubborn refusal to allow past COVID-19 sufferers to come back to work.

Senior Public Health Officer Dr Arthur Phillips sought to clarify the proper procedure relating to workers returning to work after testing positive for COVID-19 during a televised forum on the pandemic. It follows a similar clarification issued two weeks earlier by the Government’s chief infection-fighter, Dr. Corey Forde.

Dr Phillips said: “I want to make it clear because this is something that we are hearing coming up quite often that employers are asking for a negative COVID test for someone who has been cleared, who has been discharged from isolation to return to work.

“This is not supported; this is not appropriate given that someone who has been positive for COVID can continue to shed. They are not infectious but they can continue to test positive for a period of time sometimes up to three months and therefore, employers need to allow persons who have been discharged, who have been identified as being non-infectious to return to work without a test.”

He said this had been recommended as part of the protocols for safe zones.

With regards to people who have been in quarantine, Dr Phillips said the situation was slightly different.

He explained: “Once a person no longer is having the known contact or risk of exposure then they need to quarantine for at least five days and test as negative before being cleared to return to work.

“I think these two things are very important because I think workers sometimes have questions about these and employers can sometimes be asking questions or giving guidance that is not quite in line with what we are recommending or what we would expect.”

The senior public health officer said the Workplace Guidance Document had been shared with the Ministry of Labour and the Government Information Service (GIS).

In conjunction with the Ministry of Labour, health authorities would soon be engaging with employers’ associations to ensure they were aware of and fully understood the guidance in place, he told the forum.

Dr Phillips further explained that workers who were awaiting test results should remain quarantined until those results come back.

He conceded that although there was a delay in those test results being returned, in those circumstances he urged those workers to reach out to health authorities.

“We would want persons who find themselves in this position to call the hotline to reach out and say ‘this is my situation.’ The hotline has access to the results, they also have access to the results team so the results can be shared and emailed as they routinely are,” Dr Phillips said.

Health authorities would also seek to provide documentation to employers to keep them up to date with the process, he added.

He said he had also been working with NIS [National Insurance Scheme] to ensure workers’ claims were received and processed in a timely manner.
randybennett@barbadostoday.bb