An increase in COVID-19 cases is driving changes to public health recommendations as employers and officials look to curb the trend and avoid costly lockdowns. City employers should look to state and federal guidance to ensure that their reopening plans account for the growing risk to their employees’ and the public’s safety.

The spread of the highly contagious delta variant is prompting federal, state, and local officials to consider re-imposing indoor masking requirements. On July 27, the CDC updated its recommendations, saying that all people, vaccinated or not, should return to masking up indoors in regions with high COVID caseloads. This is due to recent CDC studies that show that although the fully vaccinated are unlikely to get seriously sick, they can still transmit the delta variant. However, breakthrough cases are still very rare, even for the delta variant, with less than 0.1% of the 164 million people vaccinated since January recording a breakthrough COVID infection. The vaccines are still considered to be highly effective when it comes to preventing serious illness or death, and vaccination is still the best tool for employers to protect their employees from COVID-19. Cities should continue to encourage all employees who are medically able to get vaccinated.

To combat the delta variant surge, President Biden announced a new policy requiring all federal workers and contractors to show proof of vaccination or comply with mandatory masking and regular weekly COVID-19 testing. The White House has said these measures aim at encouraging unvaccinated people to get vaccinated rather than deal with onerous masking and testing requirements. The federal administration is also considering similar measures for military service members and civilians working on military bases. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is the first federal agency to impose a vaccine mandate, requiring all medical facility employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19. It is widely anticipated that the federal government’s new moves will motivate some states, local governments, and private employers to take similar measures to increase vaccine rates. Recently a number of larger private employers have announced various approaches to requiring vaccines for employees. Other states have taken action to prohibit vaccine mandates, though it is difficult to say if those laws would prevent a policy like the one above, and some states may be considering repealing their bans on mask and vaccine mandates in the face of the delta variant surge. Some of the state level bans are only applicable to vaccines under emergency use authorization, which would no longer apply if COVID vaccines get full FDA approval in the near future.

On July 28, Governor Inslee announced changes to Washington’s COVID-19 recommendations to align with the new CDC guidance but stopped short of reimposing a full mask mandate. The state now recommends that all people, vaccinated or not, wear masks in indoor settings in counties with substantial or high transmission rates. This covers most of the state, with only three counties considered to be at moderate or lower transmission risk as of July 31 (Okanogan, Whitman, and Garfield). However, the Governor made it clear that at this point it is only a public health recommendation, not a legal mandate. The state is also reportedly considering a state worker vaccination policy similar to that of the federal government: requiring proof of vaccination or submitting to regular COVID-19 testing and masking.

The Governor also announced that K-12 schools will continue to require masks for students and staff indoors. In-school masking was expected for Washington schools this fall, but the possibility of relaxing those rules is gone for now.