The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Department of Economic Development (DED) request your urgent assistance to help slow the unprecedented spread of COVID-19 throughout our state.
Local health departments across Nebraska are inundated with requests from employers seeking letters of Confirmation of Isolation (LCI, for cases of a COVID-19 positive employee) or letters of Confirmation of Required Quarantine (LCRQ, for cases of an employee’s probable exposure to a known positive person). The receipt of these letters is in all likelihood influencing employer decisions regarding the excusal of employee absences or the duration that employees are required to miss work.
Put plainly, the extreme and rapid rise in the number of COVID-19 infections across Nebraska has exceeded contact tracers’ capacity to provide LCI and LCRQ at a level of timeliness and accuracy that would make them reliable guides for employer decision-making. As such, we are asking our Chamber partners to join us in requesting that, starting immediately, all employers relax the requirement for LCI and LCRQ as they apply to both COVID-19-positive employees and those suspected to have been in close proximity to a test-positive case.
While we understand and admire employers’ desire to adhere to well-documented protocol, the speed of new infections necessitates an added level of flexibility and agility when it comes to quarantine-related decision-making. We advise that any employee who feels ill, whether or not they have tested positive, should be asked to stay home, with no official confirmation letter required; if that employee has not been tested, they should be encouraged to do so, with the proper protocol subsequently being followed based on the test outcome. Employees believed to have been in contact with a person who tested positive should likewise be asked to stay home with no letter required, and should be encouraged to test.
Meanwhile, employees should be allowed to return to work after 10 days of isolation following the onset of symptoms, as long as they have been fever-free for 24 hours and their symptoms have been improving. Individuals who have been in close contact with an individual who has tested positive for COVID-19 should quarantine for 14 days from the date of suspected contact, unless they begin having symptoms, at which point they should be tested. This and other guidance can be found at cdc.gov.
Until the capacity of statewide contact tracing can catch up with demand, this request is an important step in limiting workplace transmission while minimizing economic impacts to employees. We feel strongly that the leadership of the Chambers is crucial to helping us successfully disseminate this message as we navigate this critical juncture in the pandemic.
Thank you for your support. For additional information, please contact:
Marie de Martinez, Director of Bio-Response,
Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services
531.530.7049
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