UPDATE January 13
The Supreme Court has blocked the Biden Administration from enforcing a requirement that employees of large businesses be vaccainted or undergo weekly testing and wear a mask while working.
---
MACON, Ga. (WGXA) -- A new mandate could be coming to your office that requires you to either get the COVID-19 vaccine or get tested every week if you choose to go without the shot.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an Emergency Temporary Standard (EPS) for a vaccination mandate or testing policy on all private employers with 100 or more workers.
Those requirements include determining the employee vaccination status of each employee by January 10.
For employees that are not fully vaccinated, the employee must be tested for COVID-19 weekly or within seven days before returning to work.
Testing requirements state that in order for a person to use an at-home test(self-read), it must also be authorized by a proctor.
"An authorized telehealth proctor is acceptable. If an employee does not provide documentation of a COVID-19 test result as required by this Policy, then the employee will be removed from the workplace until their test result is provided," stated OSHA EPS.
Testing requirements for those not vaccinated will be effective on February 9, 2022.
However, questions still loom about the reliability of at-home COVID-19 tests.
"If you get a positive test on the at-home test, then you are definitely positive," says Jennifer Hoffman an infectious disease physician with Piedmont Macon.
Hoffman says the at-home test for COVID-19 is pretty reliable.
A positive in-home test also very likely means that you are infectious, so it's a good marker.
Recent reports state that at-home tests may detect the Omicron variant less often than other variants.
"There is also some controversy as to whether the at-home test is as good at detecting the Omicron variant as they are detecting the earlier variant," says Hoffman.
The question we had for Hoffman is, why would OSHA allow these tests if lab tests can detect different COVID-19?
"The at-home test generally deals well with infectiousness. The at-home testing is almost instant. You wait 10 or 15 minutes versus the PCR, it gets sent off, and you aren't going to have it for a day to maybe three days," says Hoffman.
Hoffman adds right now, finding these tests is the problem.
"They are sold out kind of everywhere. I actually tried to order some on Amazon last week and I still don't have them," says Hoffman.
We reached out to Michael Hokanson with North Central Health District to get further information.
He says they don't count the COVID numbers that come from those home tests.
"It's important to take into account that the Georgia Department of Public Health does not keep records. It's something that we can't do," says Hokanson.
So, could this new mandate open the door for employees with COVID to slip through and get others sick?
"You've got a large amount of people who are testing positive at home who aren't being counted in the official number," says Hoffman.
It is important to note that the OSHA EPS mandates and testing policy could be knocked down in the Supreme Court.
On January 7, a special hearing was held to discuss the "constitutionality" of the mandate and if OSHA had the authority to enact it.
One official said a ruling on the mandate could be made later this week, but until then, OSHA's EPS will remain in effect.