Most of California’s COVID-19 Prevention Nonemergency Standards requirements ended this week, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) announced February 4. State COVID-19 reporting and recordkeeping requirements, however, remain in effect until February 3, 2026.

The nonemergency standards took effect February 3, 2023, and remained in effect for 2 years.

While the state COVID-19 prevention standards have expired, employers in California still must:

• Maintain a safe and healthy place of employment, as required by the state’s occupational safety and health act (Labor Code Section 6400). 
• Establish, implement, and maintain an effective Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP), as required by the IIPP standard.? 
• Identify, evaluate, and correct any unsafe or unhealthy conditions, work practices, or work procedures associated with COVID-19 if they identify COVID-19 as a hazard in their workplace.
• Under the state recordkeeping and reporting requirements, employers in California must:
• Keep a record of and track all COVID-19 cases, with employee names, contact information, and occupations; employees’ work location; the date of their last day at the workplace; and the date of the positive COVID-19 test and/or COVID-19 diagnosis.  
• Retain COVID-19 records for 2 years. ? 
• Provide information on COVID-19 cases immediately upon request to the local health department with jurisdiction over the workplace, Cal/OSHA, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and when required by law.

As the state’s COVID-19 emergency temporary standards (ETSs) established during the pandemic were set to expire at the end of 2022, the state Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board considered the adoption of temporary, “nonemergency” regulations. On December 15, 2022, the standards board adopted temporary, nonemergency COVID-19 prevention regulations, which took effect February 3, 2023, following approval by the state’s Office of Administrative Law.

Requirements of the nonemergency regulations included maintaining an IIPP covering COVID-19 as a workplace hazard and providing employee training, measures to prevent workplace transmission, and methods for responding to COVID-19 cases; making COVID-19 testing available to employees at no cost and during paid time; reviewing applicable CDPH guidance for indoor locations; and taking steps to prevent transmission through improved indoor air filtration and/or ventilation.

On January 15, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) terminated its COVID-19 rulemaking for healthcare settings. The federal agency planned to focus its attention on a healthcare infectious disease rulemaking, one of the agency’s six “economically significant” rulemakings at the end of the Biden administration.

Federal OSHA issued an ETS in 2021 to protect workers in healthcare settings from COVID-19. The ETS served as the text of a proposed rule for a permanent standard, and the agency requested comments. OSHA accepted stakeholder input on the proposal during multiple comment periods and public hearings held from June 2021 through May 2022.

The agency submitted a draft final COVID-19 rule to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) at the end of 2022. The COVID-19 national emergency was terminated on April 10, 2023.