U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Thursday stressed that new federal guidelines allowing front-line workers to remain on the job even if they might have been exposed to the coronavirus do not apply to the general population.
“Originally, if you were exposed to someone who had COVID-19, we told you to just go home for 14 days,” Dr. Adams said on “Fox & Friends.”
“But what you saw in New York City and other places is that they were losing 20, 25% of their workforce, and you can’t have that with health care workers, with police officers, with firemen,” he said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new guidance on Wednesday saying that critical employees such as law enforcement and hazardous material responders can continue to work after potential exposure to COVID-19.
The workers have to remain asymptomatic, take their temperature before going in, wear a protective face mask and maintain 6 feet of distance from others while at the workplace.
“This just applies to essential workers because if everyone floods back to work, it’s going to be impossible to social distance,” Dr. Adams said.
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The CDC also recently adjusted its guidance on protective masks for the general public, after officials had said for months there wasn’t evidence that masks could protect the wearer from infection and that masks should be reserved for front line health care workers.
But the federal government is now recommending that the general public wear protective coverings over their face in public, saying that doing so could prevent an asymptomatic person from spreading the virus to others.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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