LOS ANGELES (CN) — California health care workers who have tested positive for Covid but are asymptomatic may return to work immediately without quarantining and without taking another test, according to new guidelines issued by the state's Department of Public Health.
The new guidance, sent out to counties and hospitals over the weekend, cited two reasons for the change in policy — "critical staffing shortages currently being experienced across the health care continuum" and "the rise in the omicron variant." Experts believe the length of time a person who tests positive for the omicron variant is contagious for less time than other variants, especially if the patient is vaccinated and asymptomatic.
Health care workers who have been exposed to someone with Covid can also return to work without testing or quarantining, according to the new guidance. Workers who've tested positive or have been exposed must wear N95 masks to work.
A spokesperson for LA County's Department of Health Services pointed out the guidelines are not a mandate. In a statement, the spokesperson said the department "is reviewing the proposed guidelines but has not adopted or issued an official policy containing these specific changes for health care workers."
However, in speaking to the LA County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Dr. Christina Ghaly, the department's health services director, spoke favorably of the new guidelines.
"These actions by the state and the county are necessary," Ghaly told the board. "They are also based on the most recent science."
Before the meeting, three nurses and the head of SEIU local 721, which represents public service workers including nurses, held a press conference to decry the new policy.
"The California Department of Public Health's guidance is frankly outrageous and dangerous," said SEIU 721 president David Green. "I’m tired of hearing state public health agencies and hospital managers call public workers essential, then turn around and treat them as disposable."
Ileana Meza, a registered nurse, warned the public: "If you come to a hospital for a routine check, you might have your vitals taken by a nurse who’s Covid-positive. This is not the way to drive this pandemic down."
"If we are not well and passing the pathogen to our patients, that is against our ethics," said Kelly Zhou, a nurse at LA County-USC Medical Center. "We are here to do no harm."
The new policy is not mandatory, so a hospital employee who tests positive for Covid can still voluntarily quarantine for five days — the period of time recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But Zhou noted nurses only have so much paid sick leave and some may choose to go to work for financial reasons.
The union wants the county to limit hospital visitations and postpone elective surgeries, as it did earlier in the pandemic. It is also asking the county to extend paid sick leave.
Hospitals in LA County are being stretched thin, not just from an influx of Covid patients but from a cascade of Covid-related reasons — to the point that facilities across the health care system are refusing to admit patients who test positive for Covid. A number of mental health patients have been unable to gain access to subacute and congregant mental health facilities, Ghaly said, and are being housed instead at hospitals. Outpatient dialysis patients are also being sent to hospitals.
According to Green, Covid is exacerbating what was already a staffing shortage at county hospitals. He blamed the staffing shortage on what he called the county's "over-reliance" on part-time, non-union nurses. When asked if the longer quarantine period for health care workers wouldn't make the staffing shortage even worse, Green said, "Absolutely."
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