What Happens if You Get Sick or Need a COVID-19 Test at Work?
Q: What if an employee is sick and needs testing?
The current advice from health authorities is that all employees who worked closely with the infected employee ideally should also be removed from the workplace for at least a 14-day period to ensure the infection does not spread in the workplace.
What constitutes “closely” will depend on the workplace and the nature of interactions between employees. As an employer, you should err on the side of caution.
You should also take reasonable measures, to the extent possible, to protect the identity of any employee who contracts COVID-19. The same goes for someone who may test positive. But some employees may need to be told confidentially in order to ensure adequate contract tracing is done within the workplace to satisfy the employer and/or authorities.
If you have an employee with an unconfirmed case of COVID-19, the employee should be removed from the workplace.
The Public Health Agency of Canada encourages any person who has even mild symptoms to stay home and they should call the Ontario public health authority to inform them. They will provide advice on what the employee should do.
Other employees who may have been exposed should be informed and removed from the workplace for at least a 14 day period or until the diagnosis of COVID-19 is ruled out by health authorities.
Employers should obligation to report a confirmed case of COVID-19 to federal or provincial health authorities at this point. The medical professional who received the diagnosis has the obligation to report the positive test result to provincial health authorities.
However, if an employee in the workplace is diagnosed, you may decide to voluntarily contact public health authorities to receive advice and assist in identifying contacts the infected employee had in the workplace.
