CDC Issues New Guidelines For Essential Workers Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

In what many analysts view to be a small step toward reopening the economy, the CDC has issued new guidelines making it easier for essential workers to return to work. The director of the CDC, Dr. Robert Redfield, during a White House press conference Wednesday, announced the new guidelines for essential workers like food supply and health care employees. Many of them have been within six feet of a confirmed case of COVID-19 but did not experience any symptoms.

The New CDC Guidelines

According to the CDC, essential workers can return to their jobs provided they first check their temperature before going to work to ensure that they do not have any fever. They must also wear a face mask at all times and practice social distancing as their work duties would allow. The CDC is also reminding them that they must immediately ask permission to go home if they feel unwell at work.

The guidelines also enumerate what the essential workers must not do under any circumstance. They must not share headsets, headgear, or any type of object that is used near the face. The workers are not allowed to congregate in crowded places or break rooms. A separate guideline has been issued by the CDC for essential industry employers.

Grappling With A Shattered Economy

The CDC new guideline was issued amid the hordes of problems battering the nation on all sides from a devastated economy and health crisis to medical supply shortages. According to reports, the COVID-19 crisis has reached coast to coast, with all fifty US states reporting confirmed cases of infections and fatalities. Health experts, for their part, continue to remind Americans of the importance of social distancing and to stay in their homes and not go out unless absolutely needed.

President Donald Trump, while he understands that workers must be “going stir crazy” in their homes, they should limit their movements at present. The president said this is because no one can predict with all certainty when the threat from COVID-19 will subside. He expressed optimism, though that the numbers have been changing rapidly, and he hopes America will be over that curve soon.