{"id":10190,"date":"2026-04-07T08:30:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T08:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/eeoc-updates-covid-19-guidance-following-end-of-the-federal-public-health-emergency\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T08:30:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T08:30:58","slug":"eeoc-updates-covid-19-guidance-following-end-of-the-federal-public-health-emergency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/eeoc-updates-covid-19-guidance-following-end-of-the-federal-public-health-emergency\/","title":{"rendered":"EEOC Updates COVID-19 Guidance Following End of the Federal Public Health Emergency"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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On May 15, 2023, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (\u201cEEOC\u201d) updated its comprehensive \u201cWhat You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws<\/a>\u201d guidance. In an email bulletin, the EEOC referred to the update as \u201cthe capstone to our comprehensive resource of questions and answers on COVID-19 and the anti-discrimination laws enforced by the EEOC.\u201d The revised guidance includes, among other things, (i) information about the continuation of pandemic-related reasonable accommodations; (ii) examples of possible reasonable accommodations for employees with \u201cLong COVID\u201d; and (iii) information about the continued need to \u201cremain[] alert for COVID-related harassment of applicants or employees with a disability-related need to continue wearing a face mask or take other COVID-19 precautions at work.\u201d The EEOC\u2019s \u201ccapstone\u201d guidance makes it clear that, although COVID-19 is no longer considered a \u201cpublic health emergency,\u201d an employer has continuing obligations under the ADA and other discrimination laws related to COVID-19.<\/p>\n

The updated guidance is discussed in further detail below.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Continuation of Pandemic-Related Reasonable Accommodations<\/h3>\n

The guidance explains that employers may not automatically terminate reasonable accommodations that were provided due to pandemic-related circumstances, now that the COVID-19 federal public health emergency has ended. The EEOC explained that \u201can employer may evaluate accommodations granted during the public health emergency and, in consultation with the employee, assess whether there continues to be a need for reasonable accommodation based on individualized circumstances. Consistent with the ADA\u2019s \u2018business necessity\u2019 standard, this evaluation may include a request for documentation that addresses why there may be an ongoing need for accommodation and whether alternative accommodations might meet those needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reasonable Accommodations for \u201cLong COVID\u201d<\/h3>\n

The updated guidance provides examples of potential reasonable accommodations for employees suffering from extended COVID-19-related effects including: \u201ca quiet workspace, use of noise cancelling or white noise devices, and uninterrupted worktime to address brain fog; alternative lighting and reducing glare to address headaches; rest breaks to address joint pain or shortness of breath; a flexible schedule or telework to address fatigue; and removal of \u2018marginal functions\u2019 that involve physical exertion to address shortness of breath.\u201d The guidance also provides that information about an employee having \u201cLong COVID\u201d must be treated as confidential in the same manner as other employee health information under the ADA.<\/p>\n

Harassment and Discrimination Against Employees with a Disability-Related Need to Take COVID-19 Precautions<\/h3>\n

The EEOC reiterated that protections against COVID-related harassment and discrimination on the basis of disability, religion, national origin or other protected characteristics remain in effect and stated that employers \u201cmay want to provide illustrations of pandemic-related harassment for supervisors, managers, and all other employees to help them understand what actions may violate the EEO laws.\u201d The guidance provides examples of such prohibited harassment, including (i) harassing an employee with a disability-related need to wear a mask or take other COVID-19 precautions; or (ii) harassing an employee who is receiving a religious accommodation to forgo mandatory vaccination.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On May 15, 2023, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (\u201cEEOC\u201d) updated its comprehensive \u201cWhat You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[500,1118,2189,554,3798,1648,345,2957],"class_list":["post-10190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-covid19","tag-eeoc","tag-emergency","tag-federal","tag-guidance","tag-health","tag-public","tag-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}