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In accordance with President Biden’s Executive Order 13999 on Protecting Worker Health and Safety (January 21st, 2021), OSHA issued an emergency temporary standard to address the grave danger of COVID-19 in healthcare workplaces. This standard contains provisions necessary to ensure the health and safety of workers. The agency believes the danger faced by healthcare workers continues to be of the highest concern and measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are still needed to protect them. OSHA announced on December 27, 2021 that it intended to continue to work expeditiously to issue a final standard that will protect healthcare workers from COVID-19 hazards.  However, given that OSHA anticipated a final rule could not be completed in a timeframe approaching the one contemplated by the OSH Act, the agency has stopped enforcing the non-recordkeeping provisions.  OSHA has continued to work expeditiously to issue a final standard that will protect workers from COVID-19.

Statement of Need:

Since the ETS was first issued, there have been successive waves of new COVID-19 variants, including the delta and omicron variants, as well as numerous subvariants of omicron.  New cases of COVID-19 peaked at an average of over 800,000 cases a day in January, 2022 and from mid-May 2022 to present there has been an average of more than 100,000 new COVID-19 cases each day.  As the public seeks medical care for their infections, healthcare workers continue to be exposed to COVID-19 in the course of their employment.

Summary of the Legal Basis:

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 authorizes the Secretary of Labor to set mandatory occupational safety and health standards to assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women (29 U.S.C.651).

Alternatives:

One alternative is formally withdrawing the ETS and not finalizing it to a permanent standard.  If it does issue a permanent standard, the agency could also consider expanding the scope so that the rule would include many ambulatory care settings that are engaged in direct COVID-19 care of patients or include not only maintenance activities, but also construction activities at healthcare facilities.  The agency could also consider altering its regulatory approach by allowing more employer flexibility through performance-oriented provisions, rather than more prescriptive specifications.  Lastly, the agency could consider the addition of new provisions, such as new requirements related to the control of outbreaks in healthcare facilities, or the removal of provisions, such as medical removal benefits.

Anticipated Costs and Benefits:

The estimates of costs and benefits are still under development.

Risks:

Analysis of risks is still under development.