**Updated as of Sept. 26, 2024**
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not released updated guidance on individuals who test positive for COVID-19 since March 1, 2024. The information found in the article below is the most up to date.
Some helpful tools in regards to workplace guidance:
- Mandatory state and federal employee notices (poster or digital publication)
- Employment law resources — brimming with evolving workplace rules, sample forms and polices
Advocacy News – March 5, 2024
Individuals who test positive for COVID-19 no longer need to routinely stay away from others for at least five days, according to new guidelines issued by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Friday.
The CDC’s new guidance says people can return to normal activities, including work, so long as their symptoms improve, and continue improving over 24 hours and they no longer have a fever, without having used fever-reducing medications. After that, it’s fine to resume regular activities — but they recommend that people take additional precautions for the next five days to lower the risk of spreading the virus. This includes improving ventilation, masking and limiting close contact with others.
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If someone’s symptoms return after they resume regular activities, the CDC says they should start the precautions over.
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The new CDC recommendations are in line with its advice for other kinds of respiratory infections, including influenza and RSV.
Why it matters: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) looks to the CDC as a source of guidance on what employers should do to keep workplaces safe.
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Failure to comply with CDC guidance on COVID could be viewed as a violation of OSHA’s general duty clause, which requires employers to furnish to each worker “employment and a place of employment, which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm.”
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As such, employers should make sure their COVID policies meet or exceed the CDC’s new recommendations.
Go deeper: View the CDC’s detailed section on respiratory virus guidance.