Pre-entry COVID-19 screening now mandatory for Ontario workplaces

We will be screening all who come on site, for both their protection and our employees protection, starting on Monday October 5th, 2020.

The Chief Medical Officer of Health (“CMO”) for Ontario has published a recent amendment recommendations relating to this screening.

The CMO indicates that screening should include all employees, contractors, students and volunteers (essentially anyone coming to the workplace to perform work).  It also requires screening of “essential visitors” who are people that are not employees but provide a service in the workplace.

The recommendations identifies contract workers, and delivery and maintenance personnel as examples of “essential visitors.”

There are three questions that are to be answered and anyone who answers “yes” to any of the questions is to be excluded from the workplace (even if working outdoors).  The excluded person is to be advised to contact their health care provider or Telehealth Ontario for guidance on whether they need a COVID-19 test.

Prior to the amendment, pre-entry screening was not mandatory for all workplaces.  Some workplaces may have used it as a reasonable preventative measure and others, subject to an order from the Medical Officer of Health (the head of the local public health unit) under the Health Protection and Promotion Act, were required to implement screening as part of continuing operations.

The amendment making pre-entry screening mandatory is now active.

To find out more, please visit https://www.ohscanada.com/features/pre-entry-covid-19-screening-now-mandatory-ontario-workplaces/ for details.

Thank you! We look forward to keeping all visitors and our employees safe.