Health care workers who test positive and are asymptomatic for COVID-19 are allowed to return to work, according to new guidelines announced on Saturday by the California State Department of Public Health. No quarantine or testing is required. The latest rules go on to say that health care providers who have been "exposed and asymptomatic may return to work immediately without quarantine and without testing." However, an N-95 respirator must be worn. "It's a major disaster waiting to happen," said Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, president of the California Nurses Association. "I think it's callous and it's putting our patients and ourselves in grave danger."The new rules go in place starting Saturday and continue through Feb. 1. "It's scary," said Dennis Anderson, who works at Dignity Health in Folsom. "The thought that we could be transmitting COVID-19 to the people we care for every day." Anderson said the energy at the hospital now is reminiscent of the pressure he felt when the pandemic first began in 2020. "When you step into an ER or walk through the ICU, people are getting that déjà vu," he added. "The state might be compromising workplace safety precautions at a time when we should be supporting health care workers."Several local hospitals, including UC Davis, experienced an uptick in patients checking in with COVID symptoms following the holiday break. Medical experts are warning omicron cases could peak in a matter of days.A representative did not respond to KCRA 3's questions about whether the new guidelines could expose patients to COVID-19, but wrote, "due to the critical staffing shortages currently being experienced across the health care continuum because of the rise in the omicron variant ... CDPH is temporarily adjusting the return-to-work criteria."| RELATED | COVID-19 in California: Find testing info, omicron updates, vaccine rates and boosters
Health care workers who test positive and are asymptomatic for COVID-19 are allowed to return to work, according to new guidelines announced on Saturday by the California State Department of Public Health. No quarantine or testing is required.
The latest rules go on to say that health care providers who have been "exposed and asymptomatic may return to work immediately without quarantine and without testing." However, an N-95 respirator must be worn.
"It's a major disaster waiting to happen," said Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, president of the California Nurses Association. "I think it's callous and it's putting our patients and ourselves in grave danger."
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The new rules go in place starting Saturday and continue through Feb. 1.
"It's scary," said Dennis Anderson, who works at Dignity Health in Folsom. "The thought that we could be transmitting COVID-19 to the people we care for every day."
Anderson said the energy at the hospital now is reminiscent of the pressure he felt when the pandemic first began in 2020.
"When you step into an ER or walk through the ICU, people are getting that déjà vu," he added. "The state might be compromising workplace safety precautions at a time when we should be supporting health care workers."
Several local hospitals, including UC Davis, experienced an uptick in patients checking in with COVID symptoms following the holiday break. Medical experts are warning omicron cases could peak in a matter of days.
A representative did not respond to KCRA 3's questions about whether the new guidelines could expose patients to COVID-19, but wrote, "due to the critical staffing shortages currently being experienced across the health care continuum because of the rise in the omicron variant ... CDPH is temporarily adjusting the return-to-work criteria."
| RELATED | COVID-19 in California: Find testing info, omicron updates, vaccine rates and boosters
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