California well being care staff are hitting out at new "Return to Work" COVID-19 pointers within the state, with some saying the steerage is "harmful" and can in the end drive up transmission in hospitals.
Beneath the most recent steerage issued by the California Division of Public Well being on Saturday, well being care staff who check optimistic for COVID-19 or have been uncovered to a COVID-19-positive contact, however are asymptomatic, are allowed to return to work with out isolating or testing unfavorable for the virus.
The measures come as a rising variety of employees are having to isolate amid an increase in instances of COVID-19 within the state, pushed by the extremely transmissible Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus.
The California Division of Public Well being has mentioned that the brand new steerage, which is to stay in impact till February 1, will deal with staffing shortages amid the Omicron surge.
Nurses nonetheless have raised considerations that the choice will result in extra employees contracting COVID-19, which can lead to lack of look after sufferers.
"It's morally distressing and bodily exhausting that we proceed to do that 2 years into the pandemic," one nurse mentioned, reported KRON4.
The California Nurses Affiliation, an affiliate of Nationwide Nurses United, and a commerce union labor union with some 100,000 members, mentioned the steerage will "put our nurses and healthcare staff in danger."
"Due to this fact additional rising the chance of additional covid an infection and sicknesses for our sufferers," the union mentioned.
Union president and registered nurse Zenei Triunfo-Cortez emphasised that everybody has completely different experiences with COVID-19.
"For some folks, perhaps they only acquired the chilly. That is all effectively and good however we by no means know what else will develop after that chilly," mentioned Triunfo-Cortez. "We are going to do one of the best we are able to given what we've got and given the state of affairs that we're in."
Triunfo-Cortez mentioned the union is "hoping and urging" that the steerage will probably be rescinded, "as a result of what we [want] is for our sufferers to get effectively and our nurses to remain wholesome and protected."
Ultrasound technician Georgette Bradford informed ABC10 she thinks the brand new state steerage is "counter-productive."
"It is harmful, and it is truly backwards to every part we're doing proper now," she mentioned.
"We're on this trade to look after others; that is the foundation phrase proper there," Bradford added. "But we're requested to place others at potential hurt due to quick staffing, which actually is about dollars and cents."
Newsweek has contacted the California Division of Public Well being for added remark.
The state steerage got here shortly after the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) determined to scale back the self-isolation interval for individuals who check optimistic for COVID-19 and are asymptomatic.
The CDC on December 27 mentioned that these people ought to now isolate for 5 days as a substitute of 10, citing proof that individuals are most infectious two days previous to growing signs and three days afterward.
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