Making workplaces COVID-19 secure is a public health priority. To support this, Public Health England (PHE) has recently released action cards so that organisations know the steps that they need to take in case of an outbreak of coronavirus in the workplace. You can view this action cards online https://coronavirusresources.phe.gov.uk/reporting-an-outbreak/resources/ and download the card most relevant to your company for useful reference. An outbreak is considered two or more cases that have a clear link. If two or more cases are identified for your workplace, you must contact the PHE regional health protection team on 0300 303 8162.
There are some key measures you can put in place to help reduce the likelihood of transmission of COVID-19 in the workplace and we would encourage you to regularly remind employees of the importance of good hand hygiene and observing social distancing measures. It is also important to ensure you maintain a record of which staff are at work to support with contact tracing should an outbreak occur in the workplace.
If you do receive a report that a member of your staff has tested positive for COVID-19 you do not need to send all staff away to be tested. Only staff who have symptoms need to be tested and should not be at work. Similarly, only those staff identified as close contacts of the positive case(s) need to self-isolate. It is important that any staff identified as contacts of a positive case self-isolate for 14 days and do not return to the workplace until the isolation period is over, whether or not they have symptoms. Other staff can come to work as normal but you should continue to remind them of the importance of following social distancing measures and regular hand washing.
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