On May 3, 2021, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) released updated public health recommendations advising that fully vaccinated non-healthcare workers can refrain from quarantining after a known workplace exposure to COVID-19, but only if they are asymptomatic. This guidance applies only to non-healthcare workplaces. For the purposes of CDPH’s guidance, individuals “are considered fully vaccinated for COVID-19 two or more weeks after they have received the second dose” of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or two weeks after they have received the single-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine. The guidance also notes that employers that are “subject to the Cal/OSHA COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards must [still] ensure that employees are following the current ETS face covering and testing requirements.”
Employers may want to be aware of CDPH’s updated guidance’s impact on whether a fully vaccinated employee who: (1) experiences a known workplace COVID-19 exposure, and (2) is asymptomatic, would be entitled to leave under the 2021 COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave Law (SPSL), which, among other things, provides for supplemental paid sick leave due to a required quarantine or isolation related to COVID-19.
Ogletree Deakins will continue to monitor and report on developments with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic and will post updates in the firm’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resource Center as additional information becomes available. For more information on California’s COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards, please join us for our upcoming webinar, “OSHA Hour: Cal/OSHA’s Proposed Revisions to the COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards—Changes Are Coming,” which will take place on Thursday, May 13, 2021, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon Pacific. The speakers, Kevin D. Bland, Charles L. Thompson, IV, and Karen F. Tynan, will cover the proposed revisions to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s (Cal/OSHA) COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards. Register here. Important information for employers is also available via podcast programs.
