Healthcare employers no longer have to track COVID-19 cases

The US Labor Department is removing the rules that required healthcare facilities to track and report COVID-19 cases among their workers. This means hospitals and clinics will no longer face federal penalties for not keeping these records.

During the pandemic, these rules forced healthcare employers to take specific steps to protect workers and track infections. Removing them means the federal government no longer sees COVID-19 as a unique occupational hazard requiring special recordkeeping. This shifts the burden of monitoring and managing outbreaks back to individual facilities and state regulations, rather than a national standard.