The Ontario government has released the following two new guidance documents to explain how workplace screening and COVID-19 vaccination help protect workers and make workplaces safer.
This guidance document explains how vaccines work to protect you when you are vaccinated, why COVID-19 workplace control measures need to be maintained even after workers are vaccinated, and some considerations for employers about workplace policies and supporting their workers to get vaccinated.
Workplace controls are measures that employers use to help prevent workers from being exposed to hazards like those posed by COVID-19. Vaccines are a good complement to workplace controls, but cannot replace them. They have different purposes: workplace controls help prevent workers from being exposed to COVID-19, while vaccines help protect workers from getting sick if they are exposed. To protect workers and help reduce the chance of COVID-19 transmission at the workplace, it is important to maintain workplace control measures even after vaccination.
This document provides employers with an overview of workplace screening for COVID-19 and information to help them make decisions about the use of rapid antigen screening.
Screening helps keep infected workers and others from entering the workplace thereby reducing possible workplace transmission. Question-based screening uses information about symptoms and exposures to identify people who may be infectious and rapid antigen screening is used to help identify people who are infectious before they develop symptoms. To further protect workers and help reduce transmission, workers who have passed screening must continue to follow all public health and workplace control measures including masking and maintaining physical distance.
May 13th, 2021
