On June 21, 2021, OSHA published an interim final rule establishing an emergency temporary standard (ETS) to protect healthcare and healthcare support service workers from occupational exposure to COVID-19 in settings where people with COVID-19 are reasonably expected to be present (86 FR 32376). The ETS took effect immediately but also served as a proposed rule.

OSHA submitted a draft final COVID-19 rule to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on December 7, 2022. On April 10, 2023, President Biden signed into law House Joint Resolution 7, which terminated the national emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

OSHA terminated the rulemaking because the public health emergency is over and concluded that the most effective and efficient use of agency resources to protect healthcare 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 healthcare rather than a disease-specific standard.

• Federal Register Notice of Termination of OSHA’s COVID-19 Healthcare Rulemaking NEW
• Enforcement Memo NEW
• COVID-19 Healthcare Emergency Temporary Standard
• Notice of limited reopening of comment period; notice of informal hearing
• COVID-19 Healthcare Rulemaking Docket (OSHA-2020-0004)
• Public Hearing
  • Hearing Schedule
  • Hearing Procedures
  • Hearing Recordings and Transcripts