On Jan. 15, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has terminated its COVID-19 healthcare rulemaking.
An news release on the termination stated, “On June 21, 2021, OSHA issued an Emergency Temporary Standard to protect workers from COVID-19 in healthcare settings, which also served as a proposed rule on which OSHA requested comments. The agency received public input on this proposal during multiple comment periods and public hearings from June 2021 through May 2022. OSHA submitted a draft final COVID-19 rule to the White House Office of Management and Budget on Dec. 7, 2022.”
The announcement added that on April 10, 2023, President Biden signed into law House Joint Resolution 7, which terminated the national emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
OSHA said the reasoning behind terminating the rulemaking is that the most effective and efficient use of agency resources to protect healthcare workers from occupational exposure to infectious diseases, including COVID-19, is to focus its efforts and resources on completing an Infectious Diseases rulemaking for healthcare.
Janette Wider | Editor-in-Chief
Janette Wider is Editor-in-Chief for Healthcare Purchasing News.
