WASHINGTON–The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced restriction changes for essential workers who have been exposed to the coronavirus and do not have symptoms.

Under the new guidelines, the essential workers now must take their temperature before they go to work, wear a face mask around others, and practice proper social distancing.

“This just applies to essential workers because if everyone floods back to work, it’s going to be impossible to social distance. Social distancing is still the most important thing. But if you have to go to work, we want to make sure these essential workers can go there and won’t infect other people potentially,” said U.S. Surgeon General and former Indiana State Health Commissioner Jerome Adams.

Adams was a guest on “Fox and Friends” Thursday.

“What you saw in New York City and other places is that they were losing 20-25% of their workforce. You can’t have that with healthcare workers, police officers, and firemen. So we looked at the data and we had the CDC determine if they could go back to work,” says Adams.

Adams says there is a lot to be optimistic about.

“I want to focus on the positive. The positive is America is doing the right thing and we need to keep doing it for the next 30 days,” says Adams.

Previous guidance for workers exposed to a person with the virus required 14 days of self-isolation. The C-D-C says the idea is to get critical workers back on the job in a safe and effective time frame.