(Atlantic) Cass County Public Health continues to provide guidance to area businesses related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There are some definite steps local businesses that are still open can take to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks, as well as to detect and manage the virus if an employee should become infected,” said Beth Olsen, Cass County Public Health Director. “We are here to guide businesses to help ensure the health and safety of their employees as well as all citizens of Cass County.”
Preventing Outbreaks
Businesses should implement measures to enable social distancing as much as possible.
- Consider staggering shifts to reduce worker population at any given time.
- Stagger breaks to reduce staff interactions.
- Review procedures to identify ways to increase the physical separation of staff.
Businesses should prioritize hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette among employees.
- Businesses should provide or allow employees to wear their own homemade cloth facemasks.
- Businesses should provide hand sanitizer or handwashing opportunities as frequently as possible
Detecting Outbreaks
Screen all employees by taking their temperature and assessing for cough, sore throat, difficulty breathing or any other respiratory symptom at the beginning and end of each shift. For a screening algorithm visit: https://idph.iowa.gov/Portals/1/userfiles/7/bscreening%20algorithm%2003222020.pdf
Exclude all employees reporting fever or respiratory symptoms (these cases will be directed to stay home and isolate themselves from other people and animals in the home) until they:
- Have had no fever for at least 72 hours (that is three full days of no fever without the use of medicine that reduces fevers) AND
- Other symptoms have improved (for example, when your cough or shortness of breath have improved) AND
- At least 7 days have passed since your symptoms first appeared.
Exclusion criteria must be followed with all symptomatic employees, regardless of whether the testing is completed (even if the employee tests negative for COVID-19 infection).
Businesses are encouraged to report to the Iowa Department of Public Health when 10% or greater of employees are reporting COVID-19 symptoms (including fever, cough, sore throat, difficulty breathing, or any other respiratory symptom). Report to public health by filling out the survey at this link: https://redcap.idph.state.ia.us/surveys/?s=NRJ4FDMDPN
Managing Outbreaks
Businesses should consider excluding high-risk employees when outbreaks are ongoing. High-risk employees include:
- People aged 65 years and older
- People of all ages with underlying medical conditions, particularly if not well controlled, including:
o People with chronic lung disease or moderate to severe asthma
o People who have serious heart conditions
- People who are immunocompromised
o Many conditions can cause a person to be immunocompromised, including cancer treatment, smoking, bone marrow or organ transplantation, immune deficiencies, poorly controlled HIV or AIDS, and prolonged use of corticosteroids and other immune weakening medications
- People with severe obesity (body mass index [BMI] ≥40)
- People with diabetes
- People with chronic kidney disease undergoing dialysis
- People with liver disease
Business decisions to close should be based upon workforce availability and the ability to follow the recommended measures outlined above.
For up-to-date information on COVID-19, visit the IDPH webpage at https://idph.iowa.gov/EmergingHealth-Issues/Novel-Coronavirus and follow the department on Facebook at @IowaDepartmentOfPublicHealth and on Twitter at @IAPublicHealth.
