On September 30, 2020, the Occupational safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published additional frequently asked questions and answers (FAQs) regarding an employer’s reporting requirements for in-patient hospitalizations and fatalities for employees who contracted COVID at work.

The new FAQs require employers to report in-patient hospitalizations and fatalities for work-related, confirmed, cases of COVID-19.

For in-patient hospitalization, the specific rules are:

• Employers must report in-patient hospitalization within 24 hours of the work-related incident. A work-related incident means that the employee was exposed to COVID-19 in the workplace.
• The 24-hour reporting period starts when the employer:
• learns that an employee was in-patient hospitalized within 24 hours of a work-related incident; and
• determines afterward that the cause of the in-patient hospitalization was a work-related case of COVID-19.
• The above rules only apply to reporting but not to record keeping. Employers must still record work-related confirmed COVID-19 cases regardless of whether an employee was hospitalized.

For employees who died due to a work-related, confirmed, case of COVID-19, the specific rules are:

• Employers must report them within 30 days of the work-related incident or the employee’s exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace.
• The employer must report the fatality to OSHA within 8 hours of knowing or determining:
• that the employee died within 30 days of exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace; AND
• that the cause of the death was a work-related case of COVID-19.
• Similar to in-patient hospitalization, the above limitations only apply to reporting and not to record-keeping.

Employers are advised to consult counsel to ensure compliance and to roll out a tailored record keeping and reporting procedures compliant with OSHA’s requirements.