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Guidance for Businesses, Organizations & Workers
UPDATED March 29, 2023
Businesses are not required to report COVID-19 positive cases to the Health Department.See our "What to do if you are sick or exposed" page for updated information. |
CDC COVID-19 Community Levels
The CDC published COVID-19 Community Levels as a tool to help determine prevention steps to take based on the latest data. Levels can be low, medium, or high, and are established by looking at hospital beds being used, hospital admissions, and the total number of new COVID-19 cases in an area. At "low" and "medium" levels, universal masking in indoor public settings is no longer broadly recommended according to the CDC. At all levels, people can wear a mask based on preference or increased risk for themselves or others. People with symptoms, a positive test, or exposure to someone with COVID-19 should wear a mask. If choosing to wear a mask, a multilayer, surgical, KN95, or N95 mask is recommended rather than a cloth mask.
Business Guidance & Resources
Although previous COVID-19 prevention strategies are no longer required for most settings, the Washtenaw County Health Department strongly encourages each facility to evaluate their operations, and to follow CDC and OSHA recommendations to prevent disease spread and protect worker and patron health and safety. (Note that healthcare settings have specific OSHA and MIOSHA requirements related to COVID-19.)
Businesses/organizations may determine their own policies with regard to masking or notification around positive cases who may have been infectious on site. We recommend masking indoors when community levels are high and/or when higher risk individuals are present. Whether you provide notification of positive cases may depend on your operations. We recommend considering notification when/if there are multiple cases connected to a site, such as 10-20% of people in a group.
- Building signs - Signs about masks, staying home if sick, vaccines, and more.
- Michigan Occupational Safety & Environmental Health (MIOSHA) - Workplace safety guidance, as well as information on filing a complaint.
- Many employees have the right to paid sick leave or unemployment assistance when required to be out of work due to COVID-19.