Public Health Madison & Dane County

Posted on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020 at 10:06 am

Due to the continued high numbers of Dane County residents with positive COVID-19 tests, our case investigators will no longer be calling employers to inform them of employees who have tested positive.

Individuals testing positive will be responsible for notifying their employer and working with their employers to identify other employees, clients, or customers they may have had close contact with during their infectious period. Case investigators will continue to notify employers of employees who test positive and work in schools, child care, health care, and congregate living settings.

Determining Who May Have Been Exposed

To determine who was exposed, employers should look at the days the positive employee worked starting 2 days before their symptoms started (or 2 days before their test was collected if the employee has no symptoms) through the last day the employee worked before receiving their positive test result.

Employers should consider anyone who had close contact with the positive employee as exposed and these individuals should quarantine for 14 days after the last contact with the positive employee. An individual is considered a close contact if any of the following is true:

• Were within 6 feet of a positive person for more than 15 minutes total in a day
• Had physical contact with a positive person
• Had direct contact with the respiratory secretions of the positive person (i.e., from coughing, sneezing, contact with a dirty tissue, shared drinking glass, food, or other personal items)
• Lives with or stayed overnight for at least one night in a household with the person

Learn More

Review Recommendations and Guidance on our website if you have questions about COVID-19 and your workplace, cleaning procedures, the current orders, or what to do when an employee at your establishment tests positive. We also have a webpage—What to Do If an Employee is Sick or was Possibly Exposed—that may answer some of your questions. In the case of an outbreak, we will still assign a site investigator to reach out to your establishment.

• If you are a business and need help with other questions not found on our website or CDC’s website, you can email us.
• If your employees have questions they can go to our website for information or email us.