New COVID-19 Return-to-Work Guidelines
Many of you are inquiring if updated recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) specific to health care workers, as well as those for the general public, will impact our COVID-19 guidelines at UT Southwestern.
Our Infectious Diseases experts, Emergency Operations Committee, and Occupational Health teams have been closely reviewing the recommendations and underlying scientific data to inform our own decisions. UT Southwestern President Daniel K. Podolsky, M.D., spoke about that important work during his specially called campus briefing Wednesday. A recording is available online.
The safety of our patients and our campus community continues to be our highest priority – as it has been since the pandemic first landed in North Texas. With that foundational goal, Occupational Health will clear employees, learners, and trainees who have previously tested positive for COVID-19 for an early return to campus if they continue to use all recommended personal protective equipment including masking and meet all these criteria:
- Fully vaccinated
- Asymptomatic
- Immunocompetent/not immunocompromised
- Obtained a negative Occupational Health-administered COVID-19 test five or more days after symptom onset or initial positive test
Individuals who do not meet these criteria will continue to follow our standard 10-day isolation protocol. Occupational Health will reach out to those currently in isolation who may be eligible for an early return beginning at day five of isolation.
It is our continued expectation that anyone who has had a suspected exposure or has any symptom consistent with COVID-19 – even one as mild as a runny nose or an itchy throat – will get tested and fill out the Occupational Health COVID-19 screening form. A COVID-19 test can be scheduled in MyChart. Click the COVID-19/Flu Scheduling icon to get started. We encourage all members of the UT Southwestern community to print this infographic, which includes a QR code that will take you directly to the screening form. It also details guidelines for Occupational Health decision-making. If you provide care, support, or are training at one of our partner institutions, you must notify the Occupational Health Department at each of the partners where you work of your positive test status.
As detailed in its latest update, our UT Southwestern multidisciplinary modeling group makes clear that we are on pace to surpass the number of COVID-19 cases seen during all previous surges. As we prepare for an expected marked increase in the number of patients who will require hospitalization, please be assured that we are also focused on doing everything we can to protect our workforce so that we may continue advancing all of our missions, including providing the highest level of care in the safest environment possible.