Coronavirus disease 2019 ("COVID-19") is a respiratory disease caused by the COVID-19 virus and has been declared a Pandemic by the World Health Organization. To reduce the impact of COVID-19 outbreak conditions on businesses, workers, customers, and the public, it is important for all employers to plan now for COVID-19.

For employers who have already planned for influenza pandemics, planning for COVID-19 may involve updating plans to address the specific exposure risk, sources of exposure, routes of transmission, and other unique characteristics of COVID-19. Employers who are not prepared for a pandemic event should prepare themselves and their workers as far in advance as possible of potentially worsening outbreak conditions.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration ("OSHA") has not developed a standard specific to COVID-19, but has offered guidance as to how employers can satisfy their health and safety obligations to employees, and thus avoid potential liability under OSHA for a failure to provide a workplace that is free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm. This obligation is referred to as the "General Duty Clause", and it requires employers to identify potential hazards in the workplace and to eliminate the potential harm. This guidance is intended for planning purposes, and should be used to help identify risk levels in workplace settings and to determine any appropriate control measures which should be implemented to mitigate the risk. It should be noted that, because OSHA has not passed specific standards related to COVID-19, all guidance, even issued by OSHA, is advisory in nature and informational in content. It is not a standard or a regulation, and it neither creates new obligations nor alters existing obligations created by OSHA standards, or the OSH Act.

Pursuant to the Act, employers must comply with safety and health standards and regulations issued and enforced by OSHA or by an OSHA approved State Plan. Where no safety and health standards and regulations have been issued, OSHA relies upon the General Duty Clause Section 5(a)(1) which requires employers to provide their employees with a workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious physical harm. Even though it provides no specifics, the General Duty Clause is an enforceable part of OSHA, and to satisfy this obligation, employers must take certain steps to reduce the risk of worker exposure to COVID-19 in their workplace.

This guidance document will first describe steps all employers can take to reduce workers' risk of exposure, followed by recommendations for classifying worker exposure as either high, medium or low, and providing specific recommendations for workers within specific risk categories.

Steps All Employers Can Take to Reduce Workers' Risk of Exposure to COVID-19

This section describes basic steps that every employer can take to reduce the risk of worker exposure to COVID-19, the virus that causes COVID-19, in their workplace. Later sections of this guidance - including those focusing on jobs classified as having low, medium, high, and very high exposure risks - provide specific recommendations for employers and workers within specific risk categories.

Develop an Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response Plan

If one does not already exist, develop an infectious disease preparedness and response plan that can help guide protective actions against COVID-19.

Stay abreast of guidance from federal, state, local, tribal, and/or territorial health agencies, and consider how to incorporate those recommendations and resources into workplace-specific plans.

Plans should consider and address the level(s) of risk associated with various worksites and job tasks workers perform at those sites. Such considerations may include:

  • Where, how, and to what sources of COVID-19 might workers be exposed, including:
    • The general public, customers, and coworkers; and
    • Sick individuals or those at particularly high risk of infection (e.g., international travelers who have visited locations with widespread sustained (ongoing) COVID19 transmission, healthcare workers who have had unprotected exposures to people known to have, or suspected of having, COVID-19).
  • Non-occupational risk factors at home and in community settings.
  • Workers' individual risk factors (e.g., older age; presence of chronic medical conditions, including immunocompromising conditions; pregnancy).
  • Controls necessary to address those risks.

Follow federal and state, local, tribal, and/or territorial (SLTT) recommendations regarding development of contingency plans for situations that may arise as a result of outbreaks, such as:

  • Increased rates of worker absenteeism.
  • The need for social distancing, staggered work shifts, downsizing operations, delivering services remotely, and other exposure-reducing measures.
  • Options for conducting essential operations with a reduced workforce, including crosstraining workers across different jobs in order to continue operations or deliver surge services.
  • Interrupted supply chains or delayed deliveries.

Plans should also consider and address the other steps that employers can take to reduce the risk of worker exposure to COVID-19 in their workplace, described in the sections below.

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The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.