Agencies have been told to pause any requirements that employees document their vaccination status. Image: Sam the Leigh/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffWhether a federal employee is vaccinated against the Coronavirus is no longer a consideration in some workplace safety protocols, under new guidance from the Biden administration that reflects the CDC’s recent general loosing of its recommended safety practices.
Those practices however in some cases still vary according to ratings of risk of transmission of the virus by county (at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/covid-by-county.html); for example, where the level is high agencies still are to require wearing of a high-quality mask when onsite or otherwise on the job, while mask wearing is generally to be optional where the level is low or medium. Also, agencies may continue to impose stricter requirements in “high-risk” settings, defined as those with “high potential for rapid and widespread virus transmission” because they involve close quarters, or that are isolated from healthcare resources.
Under the guidance from the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force effective August 22, agencies are to pause any requirements that employees document their vaccination status. They also are to pause asking contractor employees and visitors—a category that includes federal employees visiting from a different facility—about their vaccination status, regardless of COVID-19 community levels, where COVID-19 safety protocols do not vary based on vaccination status.
Agencies similarly are to “stop implementing any COVID-19 serial screening testing programs and any point-in-time screening testing requirements that differentiate among individuals based on their COVID-19 vaccination status . . . agencies should not implement serial or point-in-time screening testing when COVID-19 community levels are LOW or in other federal facilities, or for other settings, roles, and functions within federal facilities, beyond those identified by agencies for high-risk settings.”
In high-risk settings where the transmission level is medium or high, agencies are to continue screening testing programs—typically at least twice a week—for those who work onsite or interact in person with members of the public as part of their job duties in those high-risk settings, regardless of vaccination status. However, employees can now both self-administer and self-read tests so long as they certify when they took the test and that they received a negative result.
Agencies also are to “no longer require that individuals who are not up to date with COVID-19 vaccines and who have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 do not enter federal facilities or do not interact with members of the public in person as part of their official responsibilities for at least 5 full days.” Instead, they are to watch for symptoms, wear a high-quality mask for at least 10 days from the date of exposure when working onsite or elsewhere in their official duties and take extra precautions when around people they know might be at higher risk.
Those with symptoms are not to “enter a federal facility or interact with members of the public as part of their official responsibilities, even if the individual does not know if they have been exposed to someone with COVID-19. Agencies also should advise individuals with COVID-19 symptoms to get tested immediately.”
Those who test positive but never develop symptoms are not to work onsite or interact with the public in their official duties for five days. Those who test positive and do develop symptoms are to do the same and resume normal duties “once they are fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and their other symptoms are improving.” Afterward, they are to wear high-quality masks and avoid “places where they may need to be unmasked around others” and being around people at high risk.
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