COVID-19 “Close Contact” Changes Again

Back in June of this year, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) released a health order that included a revised definition of “close contact” in order to acknowledge their better understanding that COVID-19 is an airborne disease and to prioritize responses to potential exposure. Since this guidance from the CDPH was an order, California employers were obligated to understand the change for the sake of staying compliant with the current version of Cal/OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard as it relates to exposure, exclusion, and outbreak status in the workplace.

Shockingly, the new terminology raised more questions than it answered because it took the easily measurable metric of “within six feet” and changed it to a more ambiguous “sharing the same indoor airspace” while leaving the rest of the definition untouched (for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period). Although the new information included some guidance to what “indoor airspace” entailed (e.g., home, clinic waiting room, airplane), many employers were left struggling trying to understand how the new definition applied to their unique “indoor airspace” (e.g., warehouse, multi-story buildings, etc.).

Luckily, last week (yes, only four short months later), the CDPH has once again updated their definition to clarify what “close contact” means and it only requires that employers be able to calculate the cubic feet of the applicable indoor airspace where a COVID-positive individual visited during their infectious period (insert face palm here). Hopefully, your indoor airspaces are all comprised of right angles so you can go with the simple ‘length x width x height = cubic feet’. Here are the specifics of the new definition:

1. In indoor spaces 400,000 or fewer cubic feet per floor (such as home, clinic waiting room, airplane), a close contact is defined as sharing the same indoor airspace for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period (for example, three separate 5-minute exposures) during an infected person’s infectious period.
2. In large indoor spaces greater than 400,000 cubic feet per floor (such as open-floor-plan offices, warehouses, large retail stores, manufacturing, or food processing facilities), a close contact is defined as being within six feet of the infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period during the infected person’s infectious period.
3. Spaces that are separated by floor-to-ceiling walls (e.g., offices, suites, rooms, waiting areas, bathrooms, or break or eating areas that are separated by floor-to-ceiling walls) are considered distinct indoor airspaces.

Although Cal/OSHA’s ETS is set to expire at the end of this year, it will likely be replaced by a “permanent” rule that will continue to follow CDPH guidance and extend through the end of 2024 (with record-keeping requirements continuing through the end of 2025.)