Risk-Level Assessments for COVID-19 Exposure

As COVID-19 continues to spread around the United States, we wanted to make sure that you educate yourself and your employees on various levels of exposure risk, to ensure that you are keeping your staff, their families, and your customers safe at all times. The info contained in this email can also be found on the COVID-19 Information Page we have created on the WANADA website.

Please see below for the Center for Disease Control's risk assessment guidance, which can also be viewed here. I would also recommend that you familiarize yourself with the CDC's recommendations for workplace safety, and their community-spread mitigation suggestions.

It is also work reading OSHA's workplace safety guidance, which features a number of details to help ensure that you are fulfilling your duty to your employees to keep the workplace as safe and healthy as is reasonably possible.

As always, we are here to help provide guidance and support through these very uncertain and difficult times for your business and your employees. As always, please contact me at [email protected] with any questions or suggestions.
 
Risk Level
Identified Exposures
Management if Asymptomatic
Management if Symptomatic
No identifiable risk
  • Interactions with a person with symptomatic laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection that do not meet any of the high-, medium- or low-risk conditions above, such as walking by the person or being briefly in the same room.
None
  • Self-isolation, social distancing
  • Person should seek health advice to determine if medical evaluation is needed.
  • If sought, medical evaluation and care should be guided by clinical presentation; diagnostic testing for COVID-19 should be guided by CDC's PUI definition
  • Travel on commercial conveyances should be postponed until no longer symptomatic.
 

Low Risk
  • Being in the same indoor environment (e.g., a classroom, a hospital waiting room) as a person with symptomatic laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 for a prolonged period of time but not meeting the definition of close contact.
No restriction on movement

 

Self-observation

 
  • Self-isolation, social distancing
  • Person should seek health advice to determine if medical evaluation is needed.
  • If sought, medical evaluation and care should be guided by clinical presentation; diagnostic testing for COVID-19 should be guided by CDC's PUI definition.
  • Travel on commercial conveyances should be postponed until no longer symptomatic.
 

Medium Risk
  • Close contact with a person with symptomatic laboratory-confirmed COVID-19
  • On an aircraft, being seated within 6 feet (two meters) of a traveler with symptomatic laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection; this distance correlates approximately with 2 seats in each direction
  • Living in the same household as, an intimate partner of, or caring for a person in a nonhealthcare setting (such as a home) to a person with symptomatic laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection while consistently using recommended precautions for home care and home isolation
  • Recommendation to remain at home or in a comparable setting
  • Practice social distancing
  • Active monitoring as determined by local priorities
  • Recommendation to postpone long-distance travel on commercial conveyances
 
  • Self-isolation
  • Public health assessment to determine the need for medical evaluation; if medical evaluation warranted, diagnostic testing should be guided by CDC's PUI definition
  • If medical evaluation is needed, it should ideally occur with pre-notification to the receiving HCF and EMS, if EMS transport indicated, and with all recommended infection control precautions in place.
  • Controlled travel: Air travel only via air medical transport. Local travel is only allowed by medical transport (e.g., ambulance) or private vehicle while symptomatic person is wearing a face mask.
 

High Risk
  • Living in the same household as, being an intimate partner of, or providing care in a nonhealthcare setting (such as a home) for a person with symptomatic laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection without using recommended precautions for home care and home isolation
  • Quarantine (voluntary or under public health orders) in a location to be determined by public health authorities.
  • No public activities.
  • Daily active monitoring, if possible based on local priorities
  • Controlled travel
 
  • Immediate isolation with consideration of public health orders
  • Public health assessment to determine the need for medical evaluation; if medical evaluation warranted, diagnostic testing should be guided by CDC's PUI definition
  • If medical evaluation is needed, it should occur with pre-notification to the receiving HCF and EMS, if EMS transport indicated, and with all recommended infection control precautions in place.
  • Controlled travel: Air travel only via air medical transport. Local travel is only allowed by medical transport (e.g., ambulance) or private vehicle while symptomatic person is wearing a face mask.
 
 
Please note: For purposes of this assessment, Close Contact is defined as:
 
a) being within approximately 6 feet (2 meters) of a COVID-19 case for a prolonged period of time; close contact can occur while caring for, living with, visiting, or sharing a healthcare waiting area or room with a COVID-19 case
- or -
b) having direct contact with infectious secretions of a COVID-19 case (e.g., being coughed on)

Sincerely,
  
John O'Donnell
WANADA President and CEO