When your organization has a positive case
Olmsted County Public Health seeks to partner with organizations impacted by positive cases and clusters of cases to prevent further spread.
Due to the volume of cases in Olmsted County we are providing online tools to assist your organization and to help us understand how to best provide support.
Keep in mind
A close contact is anyone who was within 6 feet of the positive person for 15 minutes or longer over a 24-hour period. This includes cumulative time. (For example: "Employee A" had three separate interactions, each five minutes long with "Employee B" who was infectious during a shift. Thus, "Employee A" is a close contact.)
If this is a medical emergency, call 911.
1. Be Transparent
Make staff aware of what has happened and what is being done to protect them. This may include policy changes, modifications of work assignments, virtual meetings, and additional disinfection among others. (Do NOT disclose the names of anyone who has tested positive.)
2. Remain diligent - allow infected staff to stay home
All individuals who are positive need to isolate at home for 10 days from the start of symptoms.
If they do not have symptoms, it will be 10 days from their positive test.
COVID positive individuals must stay home until all three of these things are true:
- The person feels better (the case’s cough, shortness of breath, or other symptoms are better) and
- It has been 10 days since the person first felt sick, and
- The person has no fever for at least 24 hours, without using medicine that lowers fevers.
3. Conduct an internal contact tracing investigation
Interview the positive individual to determine who were their close contacts
4. Tell close contacts to self-quarantine 14 days
Close contacts should be told to self-quarantine for 14 days even if they test negative anytime during the quarantine. A negative test result DOES NOT mean come back to work.
The safest option for close contacts is to stay home (including work, school, activities) and away from others for 14 days. In certain situations, close contacts may end their quarantine after 10 days, or after seven days with a negative COVID-19 PCR test result (not antibody/blood or antigen). Close contact’s quarantine cannot end before seven days for any reason.
Close contacts MUST complete quarantine, negative result or not.
5. Complete the business reporting form
Complete the online Olmsted County Public Health Services Business COVID-19 Positive Case Reporting form.