Due to the release of Federal OSHA’s COVID-19 Healthcare Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) and COVID-19 guidance for businesses, Nevada OSHA has adopted the ETS and revised their guidance for business to match Federal OSHA’s guidance. The ETS becomes effective on July 1, 2021, and the revised COVID-19 Guidance for Business Operations under the State of Nevada’s Declaration of Emergency and Center for Disease Control Prevention and Guidance became effective on June 24, 2021. The revised guidance is posted online at https://www.dir.nv.gov/.
The updated guidance addresses areas including vaccination, face coverings, personal protective equipment, congregation of employees, sanitation practices, health monitoring, prevention plans and job hazard analysis. The updates from the previous version of the guidance address modification of required sanitation practices including clarification of when cleaning should occur and under what circumstances the use of EPA List N disinfectants should be used. For example, businesses can choose to wipe down most surfaces with soap or detergent rather than disinfectants that kill coronavirus.
Notably, the guidance is more stringent than Federal OSHA’s because it requires that businesses with more than ten employees need to have a Covid-19 prevention program in place. This prevention program must include the following key elements:
- Conducting a hazard assessment.
- Identifying a combination of measures that limit the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace.
- Adopting measures to ensure that workers who are infected or potentially infected are separatedand sent home from the workplace.
- Implementing protections from retaliation for workerswho raise COVID-19related concerns.
The COVID–19 Prevention Program will be recognized by and added to the Written Workplace Safety Program (WWSP) required by Nevada Revised Statutes 618.383 and Nevada Administrative Code 618.538 for businesses with more than 10 employees. Businesses with 10 or fewer employees are highly encouraged to have a written COVID–19 Prevention Program.
PRINTING United Alliance has developed a fact sheet on the new Federal OSHA’s guidance, which is free to members.
For more information, please contact Marci Kinter at mkinter@printing.org, Gary Jones at gjones@printing.org, or Adriane Harrison, aharrison@printing.org.