As you are aware, businesses in Santa Clara County are required to follow guidance from the Santa Clara County Department of Public Health (DPH) to either continue operations or to reopen their workspaces. On October 5th, the County issued a Revised Risk Reduction Order that placed new requirements on ALL employers in Santa Clara County.

Below is a summary of the new requirements and our best practice recommendations to ensure you remain in compliance. Please let us know if you’d like us to help you with completing these tasks.

Changes from the Oct. 5th Revised Risk Reduction Order

Updated Social Distancing Protocols

All businesses must complete and register a NEW social distancing protocol within 14 days after the county moves into Orange Tier. Santa Clara moved to Orange Tier on Tuesday, October 13, making the deadline to comply October 28, 2020. The DPH has issued an updated form for employers to complete and submit their new protocol. That form may be found here:  https://www.sccgov.org/sites/covid19/Pages/social-distancing-protocol.aspx

Updated Capacity Limitation Requirement

New capacity limitation requirements have also been issued and go into effect the day after the county moves to Orange Tier. This limitation is industry specific. In order to know what your business capacity limit is, use the online calculator to double check your capacity. Instructions and the calculator can be found here: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/covid19/Pages/covid-capacity.aspx

Updated Guidance for COVID-19 Positive Employees

The DPH has also issued updated guidance for what to do if an employee tests positive for COVID-19. Per the website:

“Employers are now required to instruct employees who test positive for COVID-19 to stay home and isolate for at least 10 days from the date their symptoms began for at least 24 hours after resolution of fever without the use of fever-reducing medications AND improvement of any other symptoms. If they had any COVID-19 symptoms, they should isolate for 10 days from the date their positive test was done.” This is known as the “10/1 rule” and is a change from the earlier “10/3” rule”.

Signage

See the new signage requirements at the links above.

Reporting 

DPH has provided employees and members of the public with an online complaint form to anonymously report potential violations of the Oct. 5th Order. The online complaint form can be found on the DPH COVID-19 Resource page, see the link above, under Share a Concern.

Recommended Best Practices

  1. Review the DPH COVID-19 web pages to familiarize yourself with all updates.
  2. Determine if your business is required to meet updated capacity limitations.
  3. Review current workspaces and traffic flow patterns within your facilities to determine if adjustments are needed.
  4. Review list of possible violations on the complaint form and compare with current practices to ensure you are in compliance.
  5. Complete and register a new Social Distancing Protocol by October 27, 2020.
  6. Print and post updated required signage.
  7. Update related policies for new COVID-19 isolation requirements.