COVID Presumption Ends 1/1/24
Senate Bill (SB) 1159 and Assembly Bill (AB) 1751, which together created a rebuttable presumption that COVID-19 is considered a work-related injury, have now officially been repealed as of January 1st, 2024.
Here's what this means for you:
- While the rebuttable presumption is no longer in effect, incidents where someone believes they were exposed to COVID-19 at work should still be reported as a work-related injury. These will be investigated by our expert Claims staff to determine if they in-fact arose out of or in the course of employment.
- Requirements for Employers to keep a record of and track all COVID-19 cases with the employee’s name, contact information, location where the employee worked, last date at that location and the date of the positive test per LC 6409.6 were repealed as of 1/1/24.
- Per the original regulations, only a PCR test is sufficient to determine a positive COVID-19 case. At-home tests are not recommended as there is generally no way to verify the positive result.
- Cal-Osha Guidance was updated January 9th 2024, will remain in effect until February 3rd, 2025 and should continue to be observed. Most notably for Workers Compensation purposes, all close contacts should be tested in an Outbreak situation and an entire exposed group in the case of major outbreaks. Their guidance can be located here: dir.ca.gov/dosh/coronavirus/Non-Emergency-regs-summary.pdf
SOURCES:
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1751
https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/coronavirus/Non-Emergency-regs-summary.pdf