A Message from MaineHealth Epidemiology and Infection Prevention and MaineHealth Employee Health
As of January 6, 2025, MaineHealth has implemented the following updates to the Health Care Worker Infectious Disease Policy for care team members with symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection:
- If you have cough and/or congestion without fever, you may return to work when you feel well enough to do so.
- If you have cough and/or congestion with fever, you may return to work after your fever is gone for at least 24 hours (without the use of fever-reducing medications) and your cough is controlled.
- For both situations above, you should wear a well-fitting medical mask for at least 5 days from the date of return to work.
- The above guidance applies to all common respiratory viruses, including influenza, SARS-CoV-2 and RSV. COVID-19 specific guidance has been removed from the policy.
- Viral testing is not needed to guide work restrictions; such testing is at the discretion of your health care provider, based upon whether it might be used to guide treatment.
- If you are COVID-19 positive, please complete this form: Care Team Member New Covid-19 Positive Form
We are making these updates to better reflect the common transmission patterns of community respiratory viruses, the limitations of testing approaches, and in anticipation of new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control. This update is also consistent with changes made by health care systems around the country.
Here are other ways you can protect yourselves and our patients during this respiratory virus season:
- Practice good hand hygiene, both at work and at home!
- Feel free to mask at any time, using either a medical mask or an N95.
- Be aware of additional precautions for outbreak units. When transmission of infection is detected on an inpatient unit, your infection prevention team will let you know what additional precautions to take when providing care on that unit.
- Get your COVID-19 booster if you haven’t already done so. Thanks, as always, for your dedication to our shared goal of delivering safe and effective care to our patients.