• An employee feeling ill or having signs or symptoms of COVID-19 (cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fever, chills, muscle pain, sore throat, fatigue, headache, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, or new loss of taste or smell) should not report to work or come to the worksite for any reason.
• Such employees should notify their supervisor of their feeling ill and/ or signs or symptoms, and contact their healthcare provider for further instruction.
• If an employee develops symptoms while at the worksite, they should notify their supervisor and leave the worksite, and contact their healthcare provider for further instruction.
• At worksite screening, if an employee’s temperature is detected at or above 100.4 degrees and cannot come inside of worksite.

• An employee who tests positive for COVID-19 should notify their immediate supervisor as soon as possible.
• An employee who tests positive for COVID-19 may qualify for COVID-19 leave, and should consult with their supervisor about taking such leave.

• An employee who was a Close Contact to a Case should notify their immediate supervisor as soon as possible

• It is very important to be honest and timely when reporting symptoms to help keep everyone safe. This is the only way we can protect ourselves and stay healthy.
• All reports of symptoms or test results must be kept confidential by supervisors, to the extent that some information may need to be used administratively to properly process necessary paperwork, such as PAFs and payroll documents.
• If you or your employee were exposed to COVID-19 or test positive for COVID-19, see the below process for case investigation and contact tracing.

• Require sign-in upon arrival to a worksite facility and sign out when leaving each day. This list will help to identify staff who might have come in contact with a possible COVID-19 case. Divisions should maintain a clean pen container and a used pen container, and must sanitize used pens. If absolutely unable to sanitize used pens, facilities should have a receptionist sign people in, or require people to use their own pens when signing in. Otherwise, sanitize the pen regularly.

• Require staff and visitors entering worksite facilities to receive temperature screening upon signing-in each day. Alternatively, checklists may be used, according to previous guidance provided to Divisions. While waiting to be screened, all staff and visitors must practice safe social distancing: spaced at least six-feet apart and wearing a CDC recommended mask. Place tape or other markings on the floor to identify safe social distances. Staff conducting temperature screening should stand at least six-feet away from the person getting screened when checking temperatures. Place tape or some other marking on the floor to mark where people should stand to be screened. For an additional level of monitoring, Divisions should ensure that offices and worksites provide periodic temperature checks or checklist use.

• Require staff to wear CDC recommended masks that completely cover the mouth and nose at all times while inside worksite facilities. Wearing a CDC recommended mask reduces the spread of COVID-19 to others, and is only effective when everyone wears a mask. Ensure that the Division has a sufficient PPE supply based on current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) and industry best practices. Forbid anyone refusing to wear a mask from entering a facility. Post a sign at each entrance of a facility stating that a mask is required. Exceptions to this rule may be made for persons who are unable to put on their own mask, or who have a medical condition that prevents them from wearing a mask. Employees who interact with the public should wear face shields to protect their eyes.

• Require social distancing—keeping six-feet apart from others at all times— at the worksite. Assign supervisors to ensure social distancing is practiced. Reconfigure workspace, if necessary and appropriate to allow for at least six feet of separation between individuals. Set room-occupancy limits. For individual enclosed offices, no more than two people should be allowed inside. For offices with shared workspace, no more than two people should be allowed at any employee’s desk. For necessary in-person meetings, participants should be seated at least six-feet apart. Maximum safe occupancy should be identified and posted at the entrance to each room. Encourage the use of conference calls and online meetings for meetings with large numbers of people.

• Educate and train personnel on practicing proper hygiene and cleaning practices for their worksites. Make available hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes or liquid. Encourage personnel to wipe down frequently-touched surfaces (e.g., desks, tables, phones, keyboards) at their workstations with a disposable disinfecting wipe or a disinfecting liquid and paper towel. Have supervisors ensure that all frequently-touched surfaces in common areas are cleaned with CDC recommended products every work day. Encourage personnel to frequently wash hands or use hand sanitizer throughout the day, especially after touching their face, nose, or mouth, or after touching frequently-touched surfaces. Divisions should maintain an adequate cleaning and sanitizing product supply based on current CDC and industry best practices.

• It is the responsibility of any vehicle operator to upon completion of travel to wipe down vehicle used to conduct their duties or run errands. Sanitizing agents and other needed necessities should be available to sanitize the interior and exterior “highly” touch areas. Wear a mask in a shared vehicle, use fresh air through vents or windows, and limit number of people while maintaining distance.

• Work with the Facilities Maintenance Department (“FMD”) to ensure your Division’s facilities are kept sanitary. FMD serves eighty-nine facilities in the Fort Defiance, Shiprock, Tuba City, Crownpoint, and Chinle Agencies. The following tasks are performed, respectively, daily, every other day, quarterly, and upon request utilizing a “Work Order Request” form:
• Daily services: sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, picking up and disposing of trash, infection control on most-frequently-touched surfaces in all common areas (e.g. furniture, countertops, tables, chair handles, light switches, doorknobs, walls, windows, restroom countertops, sinks, stall walls, toilets, dispensers, doorknobs, light switches).
• It is the responsibility of the employee to sanitize and wipe down their workstation on a periodic basis. The Custodial personnel will NOT service your workstation due allegation of thief, damage or stolen items. The Custodial personnel will on service high traffic areas.
• Every-other-day services: : supply and dispenser checks in facility to ensure estroom necessities.
• Quarterly services: stripping and waxing of tiled-floors
• Services provided upon Work Order Request: additional floor-waxing and carpet-shampooing
• Deep cleaning: additional cleaning beyond daily services for areas identified as potential COVID-19 exposures. A contracted cleaning company will be scheduled with FMD to clean after a 213 is approved by the Health Command Operations Center Incident Commander or Case Management.
• Other major cleaning services need to be contracted. FMD’s services are not specifically certified to address COVID-19, in part because FMD does not have training or sanitizing equipment for such specialized services. Nonetheless, the services FMD does provide can help keep worksites clean and help reduce the chances of spreading COVID-19.

• Develop written Alternative Work Schedules conforming to the current NNPPM’s requirements and the Department of Personnel Management’s Alternative Work Schedule regulations. The following may be used separately or combined, as needed, and should be developed in conjunction with DPM. Contact Ms. Reycita Toddy, Delegated Human Resource Director at Reycita.Toddy@dpm.navajo-nsn. gov or (928) 871-6330 to begin to develop Alternative Work Schedules and to submit them. The following are examples of Alternative Work Schedules that support COVID-19-safety practices:
• Telecommuting: Employees may perform some or all job duties from an alternative worksite, including home. Managers must properly complete and submit a Telecommuting Agreement to the Department of Personnel Management2. Managers must ensure that employees have necessary equipment to telecommute. Managers must provide alternative equipment or processes if necessary equipment is unavailable.
• Staggered Work Schedule: Some employees work on certain days, or during limited times, while other employees work on other days or at other times. The intent is to reduce the density of employees in the facility at once. For example, one group of employees might work from 8:00 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday, while the other group would work afternoons. Divisions may create staggered schedules, but must provide written notification and a written copy of the staggered schedules to the Department of Personnel Management, Payroll and Risk Management.
• Compressed Workweek: Employees may be allowed to work more than eight hours per day in order to work fewer than five days per week. Again, in order to set up this kind of schedule, a Division must provide written notification and a written copy of the alternative work schedule to the Department of Personnel Management, Payroll and Risk Management
• Working Weekends: If a Division implements staggered schedules, and has hourly-wage employees who cannot work remotely, there is a chance those hourly-wage employees will not be able to work their normal 80 hours per pay-period. To address this, Divisions may consider offering such employees to work hours on weekends to make up for hours lost during the week. Again, in order to set up this kind of schedule, a Division must provide written notification and a written copy of the alternative work schedule to the Department of Personnel Management, Payroll and Risk Management.

• Provide Hazard Duty Pay for eligible personnel. Hazard Duty Pay is extra pay for employees deemed essential, and who continued to work from the date of Executive Order No. 10-20 which closed Navajo Nation government offices. The Department of Personnel Management has established Hazard Duty Pay Procedures (No. 20-VII-005), which Division Directors should refer to for further guidance. Hazard Duty Pay is subject to availability of funds. Executive Order No. 04-21 resumed all government services on February 8, 2021.

• Require supervisors to regularly communicate with employees through brief “safety meetings or safety toolbox talks” to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at the worksite, such as:
• Inform all employees with this updated safety information.
• Inform and educate all employees on updated COVID-19 guidance as needed, including newly enacted Navajo Nation Council resolutions, executive orders, Public Health Emergency Orders, policies, procedures and rules of behavior in order to provide ongoing safety education.
• Post signs throughout facilities to remind employees of this guidance. Remind employees in other ways, such as email.
• Ask employees for feedback. Address requests for special accommodations from employees who have conditions that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19.

• A. Preparation
• Obtain and provide supervisors with up-to-date contact information (e.g., cell phone numbers, alternative phone numbers, mailing addresses, and email addresses) of all employees. This information should be kept by managers for reference when needed for contact tracing, as well as for other work-related communication.
• Provide employees with training or information on the following:
• Guidance and standards for how to respond to suspected and confirmed cases of COVID-19 among employees, posted conspicuously where all employees will regularly see them.
• Basic information about COVID-19 transmission.
• Pre-symptomatic and Asymptomatic symptoms of COVID-19 exposure.
• Instructions to stay home if they have any symptoms of COVID-19 or other illnesses.
• Requirement to wear a face mask at all times while working in worksite facilities or outside in close proximity with other people, even if no symptoms, and to maintain a 6-foot distance from others whenever possible.
• Instructions to call their manager if they feel ill or have symptoms. If they cannot contact their manager and must come to work to discuss the situation, they must wear a mask, stay outside, and ask an employee in the facility’s reception area (from at least a 6-foot distance) to ask their manager to come and speak with them.
• Description of sick leave and COVID-19 leave policies and benefits for employees.
• Instructions to contact the Health Command Operations Center at (928) 871- 7014 for questions and to report potential exposures on the portal.
• B. Initial Case Notification

When employees learn that they have symptoms of COVID-19, have tested positive for COVID-19, are a close contact of a person with COVID-19, or if the employee otherwise suspects that they might have contracted COVID-19, they should immediately contact their supervisor following the above guidance.

The supervisor will provide appropriate guidance for leave and inform the Health Command Operations Center at the Navajo Department of Health portal. The HCOC will notify the appropriate IHS and 638 Service Area facility for case investigation and contact tracing.

Below are the steps for an employee is showing COVID-19 symptoms.


• C. Case Investigation and Contact-Tracing

Employ the assistance of HCOC and local healthcare providers with case investigation and contact-tracing. HCOC will work with IHS and 638 Service Area facilities to assist with case management and contact-tracing on workers exposed to someone who has probable or confirmed COVID-19. Since contacttracing involves personal and confidential medical information, it should not only be conducted by authorized personnel within the Division.

For employee and supervisor information, the following are general steps that will be undertaken by the contact-tracers:

• Confirmation that the employee was at work while he/she was contagious (i.e., at any time from 48 hours before symptom onset, or date of test, until they effectively isolated).
• Identification of who else outside of the work place the employee may have been in contact with while he/she may have been shedding virus.
• Confidential follow-up with close contacts to assess symptoms and refer for testing.

Contact-tracing will be conducted by the health professionals at the appropriate Service Area facility. However, the Case Management staff will be the supervisor’s point of contact for health professionals to provide them with pertinent information related to the contact tracing, such as the following

• Employee task records;
• Timesheets; and
• Contact information for employees.

Contact tracer personnel will ensure the confidentiality of employees who are close contacts or have symptoms or positive test results. Do not inform the employee’s co-workers, or other Navajo Nation employees who do not have a need to know, of the identity of the symptomatic or COVID-positive person to whom they may have been exposed. They will maintain records on all actions taken that pertain to the positive test; these records must be kept confidential. Confidential information in hard copy will be locked up in a cabinet or office. Confidential information on a computer or laptop will be password protected. Finally, direct the employee’s supervisor to ensure compliance with CDC guidelines regarding disinfection of the employee’s and their contacts’ workspaces: Click here (see below about reopening the facility).

All identified close contacts should be tested for COVID-19, but this will be managed by the Service Unit/638 PHNs, not the Division.

Contacts identified by the investigating health professionals should remain home and separate themselves from others for 14 days after the date of last contact with the employee with a positive test. Contacts who develop symptoms should promptly isolate themselves, and notify the contact tracer who they have been assigned to, and their supervisor, immediately.

• D. Decisions regarding return-to-work

Employees diagnosed with COVID-19 may discontinue isolation only when the following conditions are met (to be verified by the Public Health Nurse managing the employee’s case):

• the patient is/was symptomatic: at least 72 hours since resolution of fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and improvement in respiratory symptoms and at least 10 days have passed since the beginning of symptoms.
• the patient is/was without symptoms: at least 10 days have passed since the date of their test, provided that they have not developed symptoms in the meantime.

Contacts can discontinue quarantine 14 days from date of last contact with positive case, as long as they do not develop any symptoms.

• E. Closing and reopening areas after a case has occurred

Upon the submission of a potential exposure to HCOC, the Health Command Operations Center will coordinate with Navajo OSHA and the HCOC Safety Officer(s) to address the extent of a closure. Without proper documentation to close office may not justify and comply with DPM policies.

• Worksite facilities should routinely be cleaned each day. If a positive case has been in the facility within the past 7 days, the area used by the case should be closed off immediately. These following steps should be taken:
• Entire facility does not need to be closed, only the affected/exposed areas should be closed.
• Wait 24 hours before or longer (if possible) before you clean or disinfect the facility.
• Open outside doors and windows to increase air circulation in the affected area.
• Clean and disinfect all areas used by the person who has tested positive, e.g., offices, common areas (bathrooms, lunch rooms), keyboards, shared electronic equipment.
• Employees determined not to have been in close contacts can return to work after facility disinfection and management authorization.
• If more than 7 days have elapsed since the person who is sick visited or used the facility, additional professional cleaning and disinfection is may not be necessary.

For updated information, regularly check the following page. Click Here and

We can all help to keep our workspaces clean by removing worksite clutter and wiping down high-touch surfaces. Should a facility or area need to be closed for 24 hours as described above, department supervisors (or designated supervisors) shall ensure that all of their employees are placed on the appropriate type of leave or alternative work schedule.

• A. Division Responsibility

Each Division’s Worksite safety procedures and guidelines should provide information and directions about COVID-19 leave, specific to the Division’s departments and programs, that conform to the current Navajo Nation Personnel Policies Manual (NNPPM) and current Public Health Emergency Orders and Executive Orders.

• B. Essential employees

Pursuant to NNPPM Section X(B)(3)(h), on page 44 of the June 3, 2020 version (see DPM’s website, linked below), essential employees may be eligible for COVID-19 leave under certain conditions, as long as a COVID-19 Declaration of Emergency remains in effect. If the COVID-19 leave conditions are not met, or if a Declaration of Emergency is not in effect, the employee who otherwise would have been eligible for COVID-19 leave must request and use leave in conformance with the NNPPM’s other leave provisions.

• C. Non-essential employees

Non-essential employees must request and use leave in conformance with the NNPPM. Should a non-essential employee already be on administrative leave, no additional leave request will need to be made or authorized, as the employee already is on leave.

Additionally, supervisors are encouraged to consider adopting the following measures in their Worksite safety procedures and guidelines, to further reduce the chances of exposure to COVID-19:

• A. Identify a “knowledgeable” safety monitor and a Health Command Operations Center Liaison, as well as an alternate monitor and HCOC Liaison for each office and worksite. For some Divisions, this could be the same person.
• B.Implement engineering controls where appropriate. Inspect and modify building ventilation (HVAC) systems as needed. Install physical barriers where needed (e.g., a Plexiglas barrier at each receptionist area).

Navajo Nation employees are recommended to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in the Phase 1B of the Navajo Nation COVID-19 Prioritization as an Essential Government entity. In order to access or be informed about COVID-19 vaccine, ensure staff receive information regarding:

• A. Visit the Navajo Nation COVID-19 Vaccine webpage to receive information about prioritization of persons to receive a vaccine and FAQs at Click here.
• B.Employees seeking a vaccine will either receive a phone call from their health care provider or attend a closed or open pod event hosted by the local health facility.
• C. If an employee has not received a vaccine, sign up on the registry at Visit At . When it is your turn, health facility staff will contact you for an opportunity or an event. Individuals are encouraged to receive a vaccine at their local health facility.
• D.It’s important to receive both doses of the vaccine to be more effective.
• E.After you receive your first and second vaccine dose, please continue the following preventive measures:
• Continue to wear masks in public, practice social distancing, clean and disinfect high tough surface areas, and wash your hands. Receiving the vaccine is voluntary and not mandatory. However, your job description or job requirements may mandate that you receive the vaccine (medical staff, public safety staff, essential employees.)