OSHA Terminates COVID-19 Rulemaking
OSHA has terminated its rulemaking on occupational exposure to COVID-19 in healthcare, effective Jan. 15. The agency plans to instead focus on completing its rulemaking on infectious diseases, a standard OSHA says would more broadly protect healthcare workers from many other infectious diseases in addition to COVID-19.
According to the Department of Labor’s regulatory agenda, most recently updated in fall 2024, OSHA intends to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on infectious diseases this month. However, the agency’s timetable for an NPRM on infectious diseases has shifted in recent years; for example, OSHA previously planned to issue it in 2022, then in 2023. Former President Donald Trump’s return to the White House on Jan. 20 could further affect the infectious diseases rulemaking as “legal observers anticipate a Trump-era slowdown in new OSHA rules,” an article in Bloomberg Law explains.
“OSHA always intended for an Infectious Diseases standard for healthcare workers to supplant any COVID-19 healthcare standard, and that a COVID-19 standard would be an interim measure pending the completion of the Infectious Diseases healthcare standard,” the Federal Register notice outlining the termination reads.
OSHA is considering long-standing infectious disease hazards like tuberculosis and measles as well as new and emerging infectious diseases such as COVID-19 and pandemic influenza for its infectious diseases rulemaking. According to the agency, control measures for infectious diseases might be necessary in healthcare as well as “other occupational settings where employees can be at increased risk of exposure to potentially infectious people,” like correctional facilities. The standard could also apply to settings such as laboratories, which handle materials that may be sources of pathogens, and funeral homes and other settings where workers handle human remains.
To learn more about OSHA’s decision to terminate its COVID-19 rulemaking, see the agency’s news release.
