On June 30, 2025, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published in the Federal Register (90 FR 28336) a proposed rule to withdraw the part of the COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard that remains in effect.
The COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard was created on June 21, 2021, to protect healthcare workers from SARS-CoV-2 virus exposure and prevent contracting COVID-19. At that time, COVID-19 threatened healthcare and healthcare workers. Issuing the Emergency Temporary Standard became a necessity to keep healthcare workers safe.
In June 2021, OSHA also enforced COVID-19 recordkeeping and reporting as per the OSH Act. Employers needed to create, maintain, and give copies of COVID-19 records of all infections and deaths, irrespective of the time from the work-related exposure until the employer knew about the hospitalizations or deaths due to COVID-19. HIPAA-certified healthcare entities must also report to OSHA any employee hospitalizations and deaths because of COVID-19.
OSHA likewise implemented a permanent COVID-19 standard to safeguard healthcare staff but discontinued those efforts in January 2025 after determining that any continuing risk of COVID-19 in medical care would be better addressed with an OSHA rulemaking that covers a wider range of infectious respiratory ailments. Although OSHA did not continue enforcing the majority of the Emergency Temporary Standard in late 2021, it continued with the recordkeeping and reporting requirements.
Since the Public Health Emergency is over, COVID-19 vaccines are available, and COVID-19 infections are treatable just as other respiratory illnesses like influenza, OSHA proposed to stop enforcing the record-keeping and reporting requirements associated with healthcare employees who contracted COVID-19.
According to OSHA’s estimation, discontinuing these remaining requirements will help save $1,587,494 annually. OSHA is requesting feedback on the proposed rule, and feedback must be submitted on or before September 2, 2025.
