One morning, you receive that dreaded phone call from an employee saying “Boss, I just tested positive for COVID-19.” Later that day, one of your subcontractors calls to let you know one of their workers has a roommate who has tested positive for COVID-19. Now what? The reality is that if this hasn’t already happened on your jobsite, chances are you will receive a call eventually. If you are responsible for jobsite management and/or safety, you will have to grapple with the difficult task of determining how to staff your jobsite, whether it is safe to continue working, and whether the project should continue.  Your answer will largely depend on what preventative steps were taken already and how quickly and effectively a plan to mitigate the effects of a positive test can be implemented. The world was not prepared for this pandemic, so beating yourself for your past actions or inaction will not solve anything. If you do not currently have a plan in place to respond to an employee testing positive for COVID-19, consider this a call to arms to act now and mitigate the impacts a positive test will have on your remaining employees, jobsite, project completion, and construction company.

It is worth noting that as of the writing of this article, COVID-19 testing is not readily available in most areas. If your employee reports that he has COVID-19, it’s likely that he received a diagnosis from a health care provider who determined their symptoms were consistent with COVID-19. We generally recommend treating this sort of diagnosis the same as a positive COVID-19 test. Don’t panic; don’t overreact. But there are steps you need to take to respond depending when the employee was last on the site and when symptoms began. More on that later.

What You Should Already Be Doing – Implementing a COVID-19 Jobsite Safety Program.

It is vital that general contractors have a COIVD-19 jobsite safety program in place to protect employees, subcontractors, and jobsite visitors against the daily spread of COVID-19. If measures are not currently underway to control the spread of COVID-19, then when a positive test for COVID-19 is reported, a general contractor might have few options other than assuming everyone on the jobsite has been exposed and evaluating the safety of entire jobsite. COVID-19 safety programs should be individually tailored for each specific jobsite and company, but generally they should include:

• social distancing requirements;
• minimizing congested staffing and staging work scheduling;
• implementing requirements for the use of gloves, face covering, and/or face shields;
• instituting heightened hygiene, sanitation, and cleaning practices;
• regulating use and congestion in job trailers, elevators, and lunch and break areas; and
• daily monitoring of employee health, to possibly include taking employee temperatures.

For any company still seeking to develop a COVID-19 safety program, we recommend partnering with legal and safety professionals. For more information on crafting your company’s COVID-19 safety program, contact our Workplace Safety and Health team. At a minimum, CDC guidelines are a helpful starting point; CDC recommended safety practices for Critical Infrastructure workers may be found HERE.

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