The new Oregon OSHA Temporary COVID-19 rules require that businesses establish a notification process that provides notice within 24-hours if an employee has been exposed to someone confirmed to have tested positive for COVID-19. This requirement goes into effect on Monday, November 16th.

OR-OSHA has just released the model notification, which you can view here.

The COVID-19 infection notification process includes:

Employers must establish a process to notify exposed employees that they had a work-related contact with an individual who has tested positive for COVID-19, as well as to notify affected employees that an individual who was present in the facility has confirmed COVID-19. 

Exposed employees include:

• Those who were within 6 feet of a confirmed COVID-19 individual for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more, regardless of whether one or both of them were wearing source control

• Those who worked in the same facility or in the same well-defined portion of the facility such as a particular floor

This excludes settings where patients are hospitalized on the basis that they are known or suspected to be infected with COVID-19.

The notification process must include the following elements:

• A mechanism for notifying both exposed and affected employees within 24 hours of the employer being made aware that an individual with COVID-19 was present in the workplace while infectious or otherwise may have had work-related contact with its employee(s) while infectious; and

• This notification process must be established and implemented in accordance with all applicable federal and Oregon laws and regulations. Note: Employers can satisfy this requirement by adopting the model procedure to be published by Oregon OSHA before the effective date of the rule.

Note: OAR 333-018-0016 requires such cases to be reported by healthcare providers and laboratories within 24 hours of identification.