Survey: A third of employees infected by COVID-19 do not alert their employers

One in three employees infected with COVID-19 do not inform their employers about contracting the disease, a survey of American adults found.

Survey respondents — who included workers in health care, information technology, education, retail and manufacturing — cited various reasons for their decision to keep mum about their COVID-19 diagnosis. The most common reason by far? More than half said testing positive was not “a big deal” for them or their employers. The COVID-19 employee survey was conducted by Go.Verizon.com and included 1,110 respondents. 

At the same time, some respondents also expressed concern about the impact that a COVID-19 diagnosis would have on their employment. 

About 32% of people who do not alert their employers about a positive COVID-19 test, for example, made the decision to hide their diagnosis because they were afraid of either losing their job or not getting paid.  About 10%, meanwhile, said they decided to hide their diagnosis because they did not want to use up their paid time off or discretionary time off.

Hiding a COVID-19 diagnosis from work can be an issue at a time when the nation is in the midst of another surge, this time driven by the delta variant. The rise in infections is being seen in both Washoe County and Clark County, which have both reinstated indoor mask mandates for every person, including those who have been vaccinated. Nevada reported a 14-day average of 929 cases per day on Monday, up from 132 as recently as June 9.

Infecting co-workers is especially an issue for employees such as service industry workers who do not have the same opportunities for working remotely, according to the COVID-19 employee survey. Among those who were surveyed and tested positive, for example, only 28% work remotely all the time, with an additional 11% rarely going to work in person. Nearly four in 10 workers also continued going to work in person even after experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.

The delta variant is of special concern because it has proven to be more infectious than the original strain of the virus. It only took a month for the variant to jump from accounting for less than a third of new U.S. cases to more than 83% of cases by late July, according to the CDC.

Health officials continue to push for unvaccinated people to get their full COVID-19 shot to help stem the tide against the virus. Vaccine hesitancy, however, continues to be an issue nationwide, including Washoe County. About 57% of people aged 12 and older have been vaccinated in the county, which has administered more than 473,000 COVID-19 shots. 

After seeing its COVID-19 testing positivity rate go down to 2.7% on June 8, Washoe’s rate has since shot up to 10.7% by July 28 as the delta variant started spreading in the community. Washoe County Health District Officer Kevin Dick made another plea last week for people to get vaccinated.

“Our COVID-19 transmission is driven by our unvaccinated population,” Dick said during a media call last week. 

“We are seeing a resurgence of COVID-19 and people dying because the vaccine is available but they are refusing to get it.”

Jason Hidalgo covers business and technology for the Reno Gazette Journal, and also reviews the latest video games. Follow him on Twitter @jasonhidalgo. Like this content? Support local journalism with an RGJ digital subscription.