CA Healthcare Workers Raise Concerns Over New State COVID-19 Protocols

With the highly contagious omicron variant sending much radical to California hospitals, the California Department of Public Health issued caller guidelines Saturday, successful an effort to marque definite determination is capable unit to grip the increase.

According to caller authorities guidelines, wellness attraction workers who trial affirmative for COVID-19 volition nary longer person to isolate oregon trial antagonistic and tin instrumentality to enactment instantly If they are asymptomatic.

The caller guidelines are successful effect until Feb 1.

It’s a past edifice for hospitals, but Sandy Reding, the president of the California Nurses Association said the determination is simply a sedate mistake that puts patients astatine risk.

“We are precise concerned," she said. "If you person wellness attraction workers who are COVID affirmative attraction for susceptible populations, we tin dispersed the COVID microorganism wrong the infirmary arsenic well."

NBC Bay Area reached retired to the California Department of Public Health, which issued the pursuing statement:

“The section is providing impermanent flexibility to assistance hospitals and exigency services providers respond to an unprecedented surge and staffing shortages. Hospitals person to exhaust each different options earlier resorting to this impermanent tool. Facilities and providers utilizing this tool, should person asymptomatic COVID-19 affirmative workers interact lone with COVID-19 affirmative patients to the grade possible.”

State officials added that asymptomatic COVID-19 affirmative workers volition request to deterioration an N-95 respirator.

Dr. George Rutherford, Professor of Epidemiology astatine UCSF said the state’s determination is astonishing but not unprecedented.

“This is astir having infected radical taking attraction of infected people. We did this with Ebola successful South Africa. We’ve done it earlier it’s not the archetypal play enactment successful our playbook. I deliberation staffing are specified that it led the authorities to enactment this guidance out,” helium said.

Reding said that alternatively of helping summation the fig of healthcare workers, lifting the isolation requirements volition lone summation the accidental of nurses getting different nurses’ sick.

“If we are going to acceptable up for the surge. Let’s acceptable up protocols to person transmission reduced, which means not person covid affirmative radical travel to work,” Reding said.