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640 OSHA COVID-19 Plan: 1910.50 - Healthcare Requirements
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1910.502 COVID-19 - Healthcare

Additional COVID-19 Plan requirements include:

(i) Health Screening and Medical Management

Screening

You must screen each employee before each work day and each shift. Screening may be conducted by asking employees to self-monitor before reporting to work or may be conducted in-person.

A man, wearing a mask, sits in a red car waiting for a COVID-19 test. There is a nurse in full protective gear standing outside the car.
You must screen each employee before each work day and each shift.

If you require screening, you must provide the test to each employee at no cost.

Employee notification of COVID-19 illness or symptoms: Your employees must promptly notify you when they have experienced a COVID-19 illness or symptoms.

Employees must report when:

  • the employee has received a confirmed positive test or has been diagnosed by a licensed healthcare provider with, COVID-19); or
  • the employee has been told by a licensed healthcare provider that they are suspected to have COVID-19; or
  • the employee is experiencing recent loss of taste and/or smell with no other explanation; or
  • the employee is experiencing both fever (≥100.4° F) and new unexplained cough associated with shortness of breath.

Employer notification to employees of COVID-19 exposure: When you are notified that a person (including employees, clients, patients, residents, vendors, contractors, customers, delivery people and other visitors, or other non-employees) who has been in the workplace is COVID-19 positive, you must take the following actions within 24 hours.

  • Notify each employee who was not wearing a respirator and any other required PPE and has been in close contact with that person in the workplace. The notification must state the fact that the employee was in close contact with someone with COVID-19 along with the date(s) that contact occurred.
  • Notify all employees who were not wearing a respirator and any other required PPE and worked in a well-defined portion of a workplace (e.g., a particular floor) in which that person was present during the potential transmission period.
    • The potential transmission period runs from 2 days before the person felt sick (or, for asymptomatic people, 2 days prior to test specimen collection) until the time the person is isolated. The notification must specify the date(s) the person with COVID-19 was in the workplace during the potential transmission period.
  • Notify other employers whose employees were not wearing respirators and any other required PPE and have been in close contact with that person, or worked in a well-defined portion of a workplace (e.g., a particular floor) in which that person was present, during the potential transmission period.
    • The potential transmission period runs from 2 days before the person felt sick (or, for asymptomatic people, 2 days prior to test specimen collection) until the time the person is isolated. The notification must specify the date(s) the person with COVID-19 was in the workplace during the potential transmission period and the location(s) where the person with COVID-19 was in the workplace.

Notifications must not include any employee’s name, contact information (e.g., phone number, email address), or occupation.

Exception: The notification provisions are not triggered by the presence of a patient with confirmed COVID-19 in a workplace where services are normally provided to suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients (e.g., emergency rooms, urgent care facilities, COVID-19 testing sites, COVID-19 wards in hospitals).

Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.

2-1. In which situation must an employee notify you of COVID-19 symptoms?