The agency believes it will be more beneficial to adopt a standard that would provide protections to healthcare workers from exposure to several infectious diseases, including COVID-19 and future variants.
On June 21, 2021, OSHA issued an emergency standard to protect healthcare workers from COVID-19 and sought public input through May 2022. Following the end of the COVID-19 national emergency in April 2023, OSHA announced it would scrap the rulemaking and focus on a wider infectious diseases rule for healthcare.
