Dear employers,
Since most of you have employees who are parents to children visiting childcare facilities and schools in the current situation of COVID-19, you should know the answers to the following questions:
One of my colleagues at work has COVID-19. Should I isolate myself and stop my child from going to the day nursery/kindergarten/school? Should I inform the school/the kindergarten/the day nursery? Should I undergo PCR testing?
• If an epidemiological investigation conducted by the regional health inspection has found that you are a contact person to your colleague, you will be required to go into a 14-day mandatory quarantine, while at the same time your child will not be subject to quarantine, therefore, the judgement if you should inform the school/kindergarten/day nursery is entirely within your discretion.
• If in the course of the 14-day quarantine you develop a clinical picture corresponding to COVID-19 complaints, you should contact your GP and the regional inspection who will follow up the complaints and organize sample collection.
Are both parents entitled to obtain a doctor’s note for sick-leave if their child has COVID-19?
• When the child a positive COVID-19 result, all members of the family/household will be subject to quarantine, which means that each person having medical insurance is entitled to obtain a doctor’s note for sick-leave.
Can I go to work if my child is placed in quarantine? Am I entitled to obtain a doctor’s note for sick-leave if the child should stay at home and I should take care of him/her? Who will issue the doctor’s note for sick-leave? If it is the GP – who and how will inform him/her that due to a positive result at school my child is placed in quarantine?
• Yes, if your child is placed in mandatory quarantine, you can go to work.
• Yes, if your child is placed in mandatory quarantine, you are entitled to obtain a doctor’s note for sick-leave, issued by your child’s GP.
• The respective regional health inspectorate is responsible to prescribe quarantine for each person, including a child. The prescription shall be handed over to the parent/guardian.
• The regional health inspectorate shall register on a daily basis the data of the quarantined persons in the National Health Information System for Combating COVID-19. The Information System shall automatically send to the GPs a notification by e-mail about each quarantined person on their patients’ list. The aim is to carry out active monitoring and issuance of doctor’s note for sick-leave if necessary.
Who determines if the children/teachers/parents should be examined for COVID-19 and who pays for such examinations?
In the course of the epidemiological investigation the health inspectors from the respective regional health inspectorate, with a view to the specific aspects of the situation, determine whether certain teachers/children, who have had a longer contact with the positive person, should be examined. Their judgement is based on the risk assessment about a subsequent spread of the disease in the respective group. Neither the parents, nor the teachers and children shall pay for the PCR tests, the costs for which shall be covered by the government budget.
Is it possible to drop the quarantine if I have a PCR test for me or for my child and the result proves to be negative?
The application of a 14-day quarantine is in accordance with the length of the so-called incubation period for COVID-19. This is the time during which your child or you yourself, having been in contact with a positive person, can develop symptoms of the disease or become bearer of the disease. Having a PCR test on any day before the expiry of the quarantine period gives you information about the absence or presence of the causative agent at the time of taking the sample for the test, but it does not guarantee you that the new coronavirus will not lead to complaints on the very next day, for instance. That is why carrying out a PCR test cannot replace the quarantine.