OSHA halts pursuit of standard on COVID-19 for health care settings

Washington — OSHA has terminated its rulemaking on COVID-19 exposure in health care settings to “focus its resources on the completion of an infectious diseases rulemaking.”
According to a final rule published Jan. 15, “the public health emergency is over and any ongoing risk by COVID-19 or other coronavirus hazards faced by health care workers would be better addressed at this time in a rulemaking addressing infectious diseases more broadly.”
The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs had been reviewing a final rule on COVID-19 for health care settings since December 2022.
The proposed rule on infectious diseases – covering tuberculosis, MRSA, influenza and COVID-19, among others – has been under OIRA review since Nov. 8. Along with health care, the rule would apply to “other occupational settings where employees can be at increased risk of exposure to individuals who are potentially infectious.” Among them:
- Emergency response
- Correctional facilities
- Homeless shelters
- Drug treatment programs
- Laboratories
- Pathologists
- Coroners’ offices
- Medical examiners
- Mortuaries
“OSHA always intended for an infectious diseases standard for health care workers to supplant any COVID-19 health care standard,” the new final rule states, “and that a COVID-19 standard would be an interim measure pending the completion of the infectious diseases health care standard.
“OSHA concludes that the most effective and efficient use of agency resources to protect health care workers from occupational exposure to COVID-19, as well as a host of other infectious diseases, is to focus its resources on the completion of an infectious diseases rulemaking for health care rather than a disease-specific standard.”
OSHA adds that even if it finalized a separate standard on COVID-19 for health care, the agency would “need to conduct an additional review and possibly supplement the record again before it could issue a final rule to ensure the rule reflects the most current science.”
Directed by an Executive Order from President Joe Biden in January 2021, OSHA issued an emergency temporary standard on COVID-19 for health care six months later.
The agency ended the non-recordkeeping parts of the ETS in December 2021.
OSHA received petitions for a permanent standard on COVID-19 from the American Nurses Association, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the Service Employees International Union and National Nurses United, among others.
“Over 40 unions and organizations supported the NNU petition urging OSHA to adopt a permanent standard for COVID-19 in health care establishments and to also issue a separate, broader infectious diseases standard,” OSHA says in the final rule.
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