Dear Community Partner/Employer/Business Owner,
Due to overwhelming caseloads, the Lenawee County Health Department will no longer provide documentation clearing individuals from COVID-19 related quarantine and isolation. You can determine when your employees are safely able to return to work by the following guidance:
When to end quarantine:
- Quarantine keeps someone who might have been exposed to the virus away from others.
- Individuals should quarantine away from others for 10 days from their date of last exposure to a COVID positive individual.
- If they do not develop any symptoms during this time period, their quarantine period can end after 10 days. However, they must continue to watch for symptoms for an additional four days.
- In Michigan, an individual currently cannot test out of quarantine. Even if they receive a negative test result, they must complete their full quarantine.
- People who live in settings such as long-term care facilities, multi-family homes, shelters, or other shared or crowded settings, or who work with people who are high-risk due to health conditions or age over 65 should continue to quarantine for the full 14 days.
When to end isolation:
- Isolation keeps someone who is infected with the virus away from others, even in their home.
- If symptoms were present and they think or know they had COVID-19:
- They can return to normal activities when it has been:
- At least 10 days since symptoms first appeared and
- At least 24 hours with no fever without fever-reducing medication and
- Other symptoms of COVID-19 are improving (Loss of taste and smell may persist for weeks or months after recovery and need not delay the end of isolation)
- A longer isolation period may be required for individuals who have been hospitalized or are severely immunocompromised. These employees should consult with their healthcare provider about when to end isolation. More information: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/duration-isolation.html.
- If they tested positive for COVID-19 but had no symptoms:
- They can return to normal activities when it has been:
- 10 days since the date the positive test was performed.
A negative COVID-19 test SHOULD NOT BE REQUIRED for an employee to return to work. Requiring a negative test places an undue burden on testing resources and someone may test positive for COVID-19 for several weeks after illness. In general, people aren’t able to infect others past 10 days from when their symptoms started. Exceptions to this include those who are hospitalized or immunocompromised and require a longer isolation period. See https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/duration-isolation.html for further discussion and references.
More information is available at www.lenaweehealthdepartment.org. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. Contact us at 517-264-5226, option 5 or email lenaweehd@lenawee.mi.us with any questions.
Sincerely,
Martha Hall, REHS/RS, MPH
Health Officer
Dennis Chernin, MD, MPH
Medical Director