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Solutions Pay Pay your employees Build Build your team Manage Manage your people Retain Retain your talent Pricing Partners Software For Your Payroll Service Bureau White Label Your Brand's Payroll, Powered by Execupay More About Learn Our Story Contact We don't Bite! Our Promise Our Promise to You News Whats new? 877.366.9511 LOGIN Employers PlatinumHR PlatinumPay Xpress My TimeWeb Background Search Employees Employee Manager Employee Hub My TimeWeb START FREE TRIAL Protecting Workers: Guidance on Mitigating and Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in the Workplace Written by The HR Pros on June 30, 2021 . Posted in Compliance Executive Summary This guidance is intended to help employers and workers not covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) to identify COVID-19 exposure risks to workers who are unvaccinated or otherwise at-risk, and to help them take appropriate steps to prevent exposure and infection. See Text Box: Who Are At-Risk Workers? CDC’s Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People explain that under most circumstances, fully vaccinated people need not take all the precautions that unvaccinated people should take. For example, CDC advises that most fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing masks or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance. People are considered fully vaccinated for COVID-19 two weeks or more after they have completed their final dose of a COVID-19 vaccine authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the United States. However, CDC suggests that people who are fully vaccinated but still at-risk due to immunocompromising conditions should discuss the need for additional protections with their healthcare providers. CDC continues to recommend precautions for workers in certain transportation settings. Unless otherwise required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, most employers no longer need to take steps to protect their fully vaccinated workers who are not otherwise at-risk from COVID-19 exposure. This guidance focuses only on protecting unvaccinated or otherwise at-risk workers in their workplaces (or well-defined portions of workplaces). 1 This guidance contains recommendations as well as descriptions of mandatory safety and health standards, the latter of which are clearly labeled throughout asmandatory OSHA standards .” The recommendations are advisory in nature and informational in content, and are intended to assist employers in providing a safe and healthful workplace free from recognizedhazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm. Who Are At-Risk Workers”? Some conditions, such as a prior transplant, as well as prolonged use of corticosteroids or other immune-weakening medications, may affect workers’ ability to have a full immune response to vaccination. See the CDC’s page describing Vaccines for People with Underlying Medical Conditions, and further definition of People with Certain Medical Conditions. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), workers with disabilities may be legally entitled to reasonable accommodations that protect them from the risk of contracting COVID-19 if, for example, they cannot be protected through vaccination, cannot get vaccinated, or cannot use face coverings. Employers should consider taking steps to protect these at-risk workers as they would unvaccinated workers, regardless of their vaccination status. COVID-19 and Prevention COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease that is spread from person to person, including through aerosol transmission of particles produced when an infected person exhales, talks, vocalizes, sneezes, or coughs. COVID-19 is highly transmissible and can be spread by people who have no symptoms. Particles containing the virus can travel more than 6 feet, especially indoors and in dry conditions (relative humidity below 40%), and can be spread by individuals who do not know they are infected. Vaccines authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the United States are highly effective at protecting most fully vaccinated people against symptomatic and severe COVID-19, and OSHA encourages employers to take steps to make it easier for workers to get vaccinated. However, for workers who are unvaccinated or who are otherwise at-risk, OSHA recommends implementing multiple layers of controls. Key controls to help protect unvaccinated or otherwise at-risk workers include separating from the workplace all infected people, all people experiencing COVID symptoms, and any unvaccinated people who have had a close contact with someone with COVID-19, implementing physical distancing, maintaining ventilation systems, and properly using face coverings or personal protective equipment (PPE) when appropriate. Finally, OSHA provides employers with specific guidance for environments at a higher risk for exposure to or spread of COVID-19, primarily workplaces where unvaccinated or otherwise at-risk workers are more likely to be in prolonged, close contact with other workers or the public. Purpose OSHA provides this guidance for employers as recommendations to use in protecting unvaccinated or otherwise at-risk workers. Employers and workers should use this guidance to determine any appropriate control measures to implement. While this guidance addresses many workplaces, many healthcare workplace settings will be covered by the mandatory OSHA COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard . Pursuant to the Occupational Safety and Health Act (the OSH Act or the Act), employers must comply with safety and health standards and regulations issued and enforced either by OSHA or by an OSHA-approved state plan. In addition, the Act’s General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1), requires employers to provide their workers with a safe and healthful workplace free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm. This guidance is not a standard or regulation, and it creates no new legal obligations. It contains recommendations as well as descriptions of existing mandatory OSHA standards , the latter of which are clearly labeled throughout. The recommendations are advisory in nature and informational in content, and are intended to assist employers in recognizing and abating hazards likely to cause death or serious physical harm as part of their obligation to provide a safe and healthful workplace. About COVID-19 COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease that is spread from person to person, including through aerosol transmission ofparticles produced when an infected person exhales, talks, vocalizes, sneezes, or coughs. COVID-19 is less commonly transmitted when people touch a contaminated object and then touch their eyes, nose or mouth. The virus that causes COVID-19 is highly transmissible and can be spread by people who have no symptoms and who do not know they are infected. Particles containing the virus can travel more than 6 feet, especially indoors and in dry conditions with relative humidity below 40%. The CDC estimates that over fifty percent of the spread of the virus is from individuals with no symptoms at the time of spread. More information on COVID-19 is available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What Workers Need To Know about COVID-19 Protections in the Workplace COVID-19 spreads mainly among unvaccinated people who are in close contact with one another especially in poorly ventilated spaces. Vaccination is the key in a multi-layered approach to protect workers. Learn about and take advantage of opportunities that your employer may provide to take time off to get vaccinated. Vaccines authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are highly effective at protecting vaccinated people against...