Cal/OSHA has proposed changes to California’s COVID-19 emergency regulations, and its governing board is expected to adopt the recommendations Thursday. Yet it’s a mixed bag for businesses.
The changes would exempt fully vaccinated employees from requirements for quarantining, testing and some social distancing. Masking would still be required, however, and employers would have to supply unvaccinated workers with N95 respirators.
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The California Farm Bureau worries this would stress N95 supply lines that are just beginning to recover, and that it would also complicate efforts to get masks to farmworkers for protection against smoke as the state enters another severe wildfire season.
The rule changes are likely to go in effect soon after board approval and would be in effect through the end of the year.
