The New York Times reports, “The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced a rule on Thursday outlining steps that employers must take to protect workers from the risk of Covid-19, but it will apply only to the health care industry, not to other high-risk workplaces, as the Biden administration initially indicated.” This new “rule will require health care employers to provide protective equipment like masks, to screen and triage patients for the risk of Covid-19 and to ensure adequate ventilation and distancing, among other measures.” In addition, it will “require those employers to provide adequate paid time off for workers to receive vaccinations and manage their side effects.”

The Washington Post reports, “The emergency temporary standard (ETS), as it was called, will apply only to health-care facilities – a much narrower purview than many advocates, labor unions and Democrats who work on labor policy had pushed for dating to the Trump administration.” The rule “requires health-care facilities where covid-19 patients are treated to implement precautions such as mandatory mask-wearing, social distancing, and cleaning and disinfecting procedures, and notify workers when they are exposed to infections among co-workers, under the threat of penalty.”

From the news release of the American Association for Justice.