On May 3, 2021, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) released updated public health recommendations advising that fully vaccinated non-healthcare workers can refrain from quarantining after a known workplace exposure to COVID-19, but only if they are asymptomatic. This guidance applies only to non-healthcare workplaces. For the purposes of CDPH’s guidance, individuals “are considered fully vaccinated for COVID-19  two or more weeks after they have received the second dose” of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or two weeks after they have received the single-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine. The guidance also notes that employers that are “subject to the Cal/OSHA COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards must [still] ensure that employees are following the current ETS face covering and testing requirements.”

Employers may want to be aware of CDPH’s updated guidance’s impact on whether a fully vaccinated employee who: (1) experiences a known workplace COVID-19 exposure, and (2) is asymptomatic, would be entitled to leave under the 2021 COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave Law (SPSL), which, among other things, provides for supplemental paid sick leave due to a required quarantine or isolation related to COVID-19.