Business Operations

Subscribe to Business Operations

The Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Health issued a press release on June 28, 2021 strongly recommending that everyone, regardless of their vaccination status, wear masks indoors in public places, including workplaces, to protect against the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19.  This change was prompted by the drastic increase in…

OSHA issued the COVID-19 Healthcare Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on June 10, 2021. The full ETS can be found here: Subpart U — COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (osha.gov).

The ETS applies to workplace settings where professional healthcare practitioners provide healthcare services or healthcare support services. The ETS primarily applies to hospital workplaces. Many other workplace settings where professional healthcare practitioners provide healthcare services or healthcare support services can be exempted from coverage of the ETS if they meet certain criteria, including having all employees fully vaccinated, screening all non‑employees for COVID-19 symptoms before entry, and prohibiting entry for persons with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases. If there is a healthcare setting embedded within a non‑healthcare setting, such as medical clinics within manufacturing facilities, the ETS may apply only to the embedded healthcare setting and not the remainder of the non-healthcare setting.

…
Continue Reading OSHA Issues COVID-19 ETS for Healthcare Settings

On May 13, 2021, the CDC once again updated its guidance (here and here), significantly relaxing its standards for fully vaccinated individuals. “Fully vaccinated individuals” means that two weeks or more have passed since the person received either the second dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine or one dose of a single-dose vaccine. Immunocompromised people, even if fully vaccinated, should consult their healthcare providers about the applicability of this new guidance.

The updated guidance provides that fully vaccinated individuals can:

  • Resume activities they engaged in prior to the pandemic without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.
  • Refrain from testing following a known exposure unless they are residents or employees of a correctional or detention facility or a homeless shelter.

The CDC provided an updated infographic to help explain activities that unvaccinated and fully vaccinated people may engage in with corresponding risk levels.…
Continue Reading CDC Significantly Relaxes Mask Requirement For Fully Vaccinated Individuals

The CDC updated its guidance (here and here) and relaxed its standards in some instances for individuals who are fully vaccinated. This is because certain activities present a low risk of contracting COVID-19 for such individuals. “Fully vaccinated individuals” means that two weeks or more have passed since the person received either the second dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine or one dose of a single-dose vaccine. Note, however, that immunocompromised people, even if fully vaccinated, should consult their healthcare provider about the applicability of this new guidance.

The updated guidance provides that the following regarding fully vaccinated people:

  • Mask Wearing
    • Do not need to wear masks or physically distance if they are visiting indoors with other fully vaccinated people or with unvaccinated people (including children) from a single household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease
    • May participate in outdoor activities and recreation without a mask, except in certain crowded settings and venues
  • Travel
    • May travel domestically, do not need to test for COVID-19 before or after travel, and do not need to self-quarantine after travel
    • Do not need to be tested before leaving the United States for international travel (unless required by the destination) and do not need to self-quarantine after returning to the United States (note that the fully vaccinated individual will still need a negative test to return to the United States and the CDC still recommends that the individual get a viral COVID-19 test three to five days after travel)
  • Testing and Quarantining
    • Do not need to be tested or quarantine following a known exposure to COVID-19 if asymptomatic, with some exceptions for specific settings, including employees of high-density workplaces (such as poultry processing plants), residents and employees of non-healthcare congregate settings, and dormitory residents
    • Do not need to participate in routine screening testing if asymptomatic and feasible

…
Continue Reading CDC Relaxes Some of Its Guidance For Fully Vaccinated Individuals

Chicago recently enacted an ordinance granting employees rights in connection with getting a COVID-19 vaccine. Employers should be aware of these key provisions:

  • An employer may not take adverse action against an employee who gets a vaccine during working hours.
  • Regardless of whether an employer mandates vaccination, it cannot mandate that employees receive the vaccine

…

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released long-awaited Guidance this morning regarding permissible activities and relaxed precautions for individuals who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. An individual is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the second shot of a two-dose vaccine (e.g., Pfizer or Moderna), or two weeks after receiving the single-dose vaccine (e.g., Johnson & Johnson).

Specifically, today’s CDC Guidance states that fully vaccinated individuals may:

  • Gather indoors with other fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask;
  • Gather indoors with unvaccinated people from one other household (for example, visiting with relatives who all live together) without masks, unless any of those people or anyone they live with has an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19; and
  • Refrain from quarantine and testing following a known exposure to COVID-19 if asymptomatic.

…
Continue Reading CDC Releases Guidance for Fully Vaccinated Persons

By Andy Smetana and Teri Lindquist

The Small Business Administration (SBA) recently released a flurry of new materials implementing changes to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). These materials provide clarifications and updates, but also introduce new changes that borrowers should note when applying for loan forgiveness, a loan increase, or a “second draw” PPP loan.…

On December 14, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an Executive Order N-84-20 addressing the COVID-19 pandemic including, but not limited, to updating the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s (Cal/OSHA) emergency regulations, which went into effect November 30, 2020. The Executive Order modified the emergency regulations so that they incorporate the new California Department of Public Health’s (CDPH) COVID-19 Quarantine Guidance, specifically stating that the exclusion periods in Sections 3205(c)(10) and (11) are suspended to the extent that they exceed the longer of the applicable quarantine or isolation period recommended by CDPH.…
Continue Reading California’s New Executive Order and COVID-19 Quarantine Guidance