The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday issued new guidelines aimed at getting workers who have been exposed to the coronavirus in critical fields back to work faster.
Under the old guidance, workers were told to stay at home for 14 days if they were exposed to someone who had tested positive for the coronavirus.
The new guidelines will allow critical workers who have been exposed go back to work as long as they are asymptomatic and follow conditions like taking their temperature before going to work, wearing a face mask at all times and practicing social distancing at work as much as possible.
The new guidance is intended to allow health care workers, food supply workers and others in critical industries to go back to work sooner, as long as they do not have symptoms.
“One of the most important things we can do is keep our critical workforce working,” CDC Director Robert Redfield said while unveiling the new guidelines during a White House news briefing.
The guidelines also call on employers to take steps like sending workers home immediately if they are sick and to try to increase air exchange in the workplace.
Amid the focus on critical workers, Senate Democrats are also calling for a “Heroes Fund” to increase pay for those who are needed to remain at work to keep society running, up to $25,000.