Thread by @kit_delgadoMD

A friend of mine of who runs an essential, office-based business with ~50 employees and 1 employee just tested + for #COVID19 after finding out about an exposure over Memorial Day weekend family gathering

A thread on running a business in the time of #coronavirus👇

2/ The business has had a zero-tolerance policy on coming to work with any symptoms. This employee who tested positive apparently felt a little tired last week, but no fever, cough, or obvious symptoms. The employee was notified via contact tracing of the exposure on Memorial day

3/ Upon being notified of the exposure, the employee was able to get a same day #COVID19 test which turned out positive. This triggered same-day tests of everyone exposed at work and shutting down the office for deep cleaning

4/ Fortunately, exposed employees have tested negative so far, and ones that were just recently exposed will have to self-isolate and be tested in 7 days even if asymptomatic because it can take that long for tests to turn positive

5/ My friend notes that managing operations in the midst of #coronavirus is a challenge and there hasn't been a great playbook on:
1) who needs to get tested
2) who needs to self-isolate and for how long

@CDCgov has some info, but more guidance needed
cdc.gov/coronavirus/20…

6/ A silver lining is that the business has had a mask policy. This likely contributed to prevention of an outbreak in the business. While some feel mask policies infringe on personal freedoms, in reality they enable businesses to operate and reduce risks
science.sciencemag.org/content/early/…

7/ However, all the work #COVID19 precautions in the world don't mean much if employees don't take the same precautions in their personal lives (e.g. Memorial Day gathering). These personal decisions, have broad impacts on your co-workers livelihoods and lives

8/ This story highlights the value of contact tracing facilitating rapid, same-day testing of exposures, isolation, and workplace precautions including mask policies and physical distancing. Without these, the consequences of the Memorial Day exposure could have been much worse

9/ Moral of the story: if you want to get the economy back on track, adhere to physical and social distancing and advocate for contact tracing, rapid testing. Otherwise, it will be a long drawn out cycle of opening and closing which is good for nobody

10/ These basic principles on what we must do to #OpenSafely and return to normalcy are further laid out in this piece I wrote in @USATODAY

fin/

usatoday.com/story/opinion/…