On April 8, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued Expanded Temporary Enforcement Guidance on Respiratory Protection Fit-Testing for N95 Filtering Facepieces in All Industries During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic.

The memorandum expands the temporary enforcement guidance provided in OSHA’s March 14, 2020 memorandum on enforcing annual fit-testing requirements of the Respiratory Protection standard, 29 CFR § 1910.134(f)(2), with regard to supply shortages of N95s or other filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

The March 14 guidance, which applied to healthcare, now applies to all workplaces covered by OSHA where there is required use of respirators. This memorandum will take effect immediately and remain in effect until further notice, and is intended to be time-limited to the current public health crisis.

For more information about COVID-19, please visit OSHA’s COVID-19 webpage and CDC's COVID-19 webpage.