California is set to
fully reopen in less than two weeks as cases in the state have majorly dropped.
The state is ready to do away with virtually all mask and social distancing
requirements for vaccinated people, but those who regulate workplaces in the
state aren’t ready to go that far and that has business groups upset.

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The California
Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board meets Thursday and will consider
new workplace rules that would only allow workers to go maskless if everyone in
a room is fully vaccinated against the COVID-19.

The rules could remain the
same next year as well even though coronavirus cases have fallen dramatically
after a severe winter spike as more people are vaccinated.

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Recent U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention guidance says that fully vaccinated people can
now skip face coverings and distancing in nearly all situations, and the state
is set to follow that recommendation starting June 15.

But the state safety
board’s staff says conditions are different among workers, leading to their
proposed rule that even vaccinated employees remain masked unless everyone else
in their workspace is immuned.

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“Starting June 15,
vaccinated individuals will be able to go to most public settings without
having to wear masks, even if other unvaccinated individuals are present,”
officials wrote. “But vaccinated employees at that same location will have to
wear a mask.”

 “A very large proportion of California
employees will remain unvaccinated as of June 15, 2021,” the staff said in its
recommendation. “Due to changes in social norms, as mask-wearing and physical
distancing decline among fully vaccinated people, those precautions are likely
to decline among unvaccinated and partially vaccinated people as well.”

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More than 17.4 million
of California’s nearly 40 million residents are fully vaccinated, state health
officials said Thursday, and the positivity rate for the virus has dropped to
0.8%.