Potential Risk Aggregators

For those of us responsible for First Reports of Injury and post-accident employee follow-up, the above headline gives us pause. When it comes to potential risk aggregators and work-related COVID-19 exposures, the CDC guidelines are fluid and stakeholders must learn as they go.

Claire Wilkinson, writing in Business Insurance, reports on CDC definition changes regarding what constitutes “close contact” of someone with COVID-19. Previously the standard was 15 minutes and within six feet of an infected individual. The new CDC update describes “close contact” to be within six feet but the exposure period is now 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period.

The Business Insurance article describes a case study of a corrections officer who contracted COVID-19 apparently on the job, from 22 very brief interactions with inmates for a cumulative total of 17 minutes during his work shift. Although the officer correctly wore the required PPE during these encounters, it was determined that the inmates were not correctly masked during all of the incidents.

These cumulative short encounters are now the potential risk aggregators that may influence workers’ compensation exposures.

Doing better is complicated, but it’s not optional.

Call us. We can do better.

William Faris, JD
Chief Executive Officer
502-495-5040
william.faris@omca.biz
www.omca.biz

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