The Commissioner of the New York Department of Health has extended the designation of COVID-19 as a highly contagious communicable disease that presents a serious risk of harm to public health under the NY HERO Act until January 15, 2022, at which point the designation will be reviewed. Accordingly, the airborne infectious disease exposure prevention plans required under Section 1 of the Act must be kept in place through that date.

Although the New York State Department of Labor has published guidance stating that it would provide additional guidance by November 1, 2021 on Section 2 of the HERO Act, which concerns joint labor-management workplace safety committees, such has not yet been made available. We continue to monitor for this guidance.

*Kamil Gajda, Law Clerk – Admission Pending (not admitted to the practice of law) in the firm’s New York office, contributed to the preparation of this post.