What if I get exposed to COVID-19 at work?

A lot of employees are going to be exposed to coronavirus or COVID-19 while working; if that happens, you should contact an attorney. If you test positive and here's why sometimes, if you're exposed, you may have a compensable work comp claim. So the way I look at this is for employees who are our frontline workers, so these are our medical providers. These are staff at hospitals and medical facilities. These are our firemen policemen anybody on the front line. They're at a really high risk of getting COVID-19, and if they do get it, obviously they can't work, but they're gonna have a compensable work comp claim because their exposures most likely happen while they're working.

Beyond those people, let's say you're not one of the frontline workers, but you're working for an essential business that's still operating, well if you get COVID-19, you may also have a compensable work comp claim here in Illinois. It's going to depend on what level of risk you are at, so there's a high risk that's the frontline workers right. There's also medium risk. This would be people who are working for essential businesses who are exposed to the public. So our grocery store workers, our gas station attendants our public transportation people, these workers are having contact with the general public as required by their work. If they are exposed and contract COVID-19, they also likely have a compensable work comp claim.

Now, the last category of workers would be what would be considered a low-risk worker. These are people who are working in a job where they really aren't having any contact with the public. They're going into a secure environment where they're not even having a lot of contact with their co-workers for those employees we're going to have to ask the right questions because yes they may have a compensable work comp, but we're gonna have to show that their risk of exposure was higher than the average public, which means if you had the same exposure as going to the grocery store once every few weeks, it might not be compensable that's where it's most important to talk to an attorney who's going to ask you the right questions to determine whether, in fact, you have a compensable claim the.

The last thing I'd say about it is a lot of employers are going to kind of take a bright-line rule some employers are just going to accept all these claims as compensable and pay them off which is great, but it's still a good idea to have an attorney because they may not pay you what you're entitled to some employers are going to deny all of these claims and those are the ones that definitely are going to need to seek legal advice if they can track COVID-19 while they're working.