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The CDPH now recommends that vaccinated workers in high-risk settings be tested for COVID-19 immediately following a “close-contact” exposure and again three to five days after the exposure. The final version of the Cal/OSHA COVID-19 ETS will take effect May 7 and end Dec. 31, 2022.

Update Sept. 30, 2022: New face mask guidance from the California Department of Public Health very clearly states that face masks are still required for everyone, regardless of vaccination status, in health care settings, including dental offices.

When performing or involved with aerosol-generating procedures (open suctioning of airways, sputum induction and others), dental health care personnel should continue to wear NIOSH-approved N95, N95-equivalent or higher-level respirators. 
 

The universal face-mask mandate will end Feb. 16 for most vaccinated Californians in public indoor settings, including restaurants and entertainment venues, but masks will continue to be required for all individuals in dental and medical offices and other specified settings.
 

The February 2022 issue of the Journal of the California Dental Association features articles on how dentistry has responded and adapted to the “new normal” of living and practicing with COVID-19, with the expectation that SARS-CoV-2 will eventually become endemic. 

Every residential address in the U.S. can now order a third set of free at-home COVID-19 tests through the federal government.The free tests present an opportunity for California dentists who are complying with the state’s vaccinate-or-test mandate that has been in force since Aug. 23, 2021.

The Cal/OSHA Emergency Temporary Standards are effective today, Jan. 14, with changes including return-to-work criteria based on employee vaccination status and test results. Isolation and quarantine periods range from 0-10 days for health care personnel based on vaccination status and negative test results.

The guidance being issued by multiple federal, state and local agencies remains confusing and complicated, and that confusion is expected to continue over the next several weeks until the omicron surge wanes. Here's information that can help dentists right now.

California issued an order requiring approximately 2.5 million of the state’s health care workers to get the COVID-19 booster to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. The state order does not include dental offices, but Santa Clara County and San Francisco have since issued booster orders for dental personnel.