It has been two years since the start of the pandemic and there is still a lot to learn about COVID-19. While this is a virus that no one wants to catch, many doctors and health regulators are still trying to figure out what happens after the patient recovers. In some cases, patients can continue to experience symptoms like fatigue and difficulty breathing, even if they aren’t infectious. Other patients lose their sense of smell for months after the virus past passed through them.
On December 14, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) updated its policies on COVID-19 for disability, employment, and reasonable accommodation. These guidelines are meant to prevent employers from discriminating against disabled workers while helping everyone learn what qualifies as COVID disability.
Keep up with the latest guidelines and how they could affect your organization.
Review what it means to have a disability
The first part of the EEOC guidance focuses on what it means to have a disability. The organization states that the definition of disability applies to COVID-19 in the same way it would for any other medical condition. A person can have a disability in one of three ways:
- A person has a physical or mental impairment that limits a major life activity (the EEOC calls this an actual disability.)
- An individual has a record of a disability, such as cancer that is in remission.
- The person is regarded as an individual with a disability, whether or not it actually seems like it interferes with major life activities.
These definitions are intentionally developed to be broad. However, not every illness or condition will qualify as a disability. COVID-19 is a strong example. Not everyone who has COVID and who has recovered from it will be regarded as having a disability.
Who qualifies as having a disability due to COVID-19?
So what constitutes an actual COVID-related disability by the EEOC? The guidance states that a person who had COVID-19 has an actual disability if the medical condition or its symptoms cause physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. The concept of disrupting major life activities is key here.
To help employers and their staff, the EEOC provides several examples of what it means for COVID-19 to affect major life activities:
- An individual may experience multiple-day headaches, dizziness, brain fog, and difficulty remembering or concentrating, which the employee’s doctor attributes to the virus. This means their neurological functions are limited.
- Someone who receives supplemental oxygen for breathing difficulties and has shortness of breath as a result of the virus has limited respiratory function. They are limited in daily activities like moving, walking, and completing hard labor.
- A person who experiences heart palpitations and chest pain due to the virus has limited cardiovascular function.
- Patients diagnosed with long COVID may also qualify as having a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Essentially, these definitions prove that having COVID-19 alone isn’t enough to claim that you have a disability. The EEOC states this several times throughout the guidance.
“Someone infected with the virus causing COVID-19 who is asymptomatic or a person whose COVID-19 results in mild symptoms similar to the common cold or flu that resolve in a matter of weeks—with no other consequences—will not be substantially limited in a major life activity for purposes of the ADA.”
Understanding long COVID
As of July 2021, the CDC refers to long COVID as post-COVID conditions to describe symptoms that last long after the initial infection. Other terms for this condition include long-haul COVID, post-acute COVID-19, or chronic COVID.
Researchers are still trying to understand the effects of COVID-19 on patients. Post-COVID conditions can last in patients who have a severe reaction to the virus, leaving them with breathing problems and fatigue for weeks or months after they are no longer infectious. However, the CDC reports that patients that have mild responses to the virus initially can develop long-term complications later on. Just because an employee has a minor response to the virus at first doesn’t mean they can’t develop COVID as a disability as more symptoms emerge.
Experiences vary from patient to patient, but a few common symptoms of post-COVID conditions include:
- Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
- Fatigue, joint pain, muscle pain
- Difficulty thinking or concentrating
- Cough
- Stomach or chest pain
- Fever
- Dizziness
- Sleep problems
- Changes in smell or taste
These symptoms often worsen after physical or mental activities, known as post-exertional malaise. While an employee may be able to complete a task initially, they may experience the effects of their exertion for hours or days after, disrupting major life activities.
While the prevalence of long COVID isn’t fully known, some research has found that half of the patients still experience symptoms more than six months after recovery.
Reasonable accommodation guidelines still apply
If an employee does have long COVID and continues to experience symptoms, the reasonable accommodation guidelines through the ADA still apply. There are two ways to do this:
- Make the employee workplace more accessible.
- Adjust the employee’s job, hours, equipment, or other systems to accommodate their disability.
Reasonable accommodations need to be provided as long as there is no undue hardship to the company. For example, an employee with long COVID who has worked remotely during the pandemic may request continued remote work if they aren’t able to walk to work or navigate the office. This is considered a reasonable request.
It’s not uncommon for employers to ask for information from the employee’s medical provider on the disability to understand the duration of the accommodation. Using the remote work example, the employer might approve an employee working from home for six months, upon which they will revisit the situation.
Update your managers and HR team on COVID disability
The current EEOC guidelines are in effect. If your employees experienced COVID-19 and have lingering effects from the disease, they may qualify for reasonable accommodation for their disabilities. Review the information published by the EEOC and build its best practices into your company handbook.
Learn more about reasonable accommodation in the workplace, including best practices to follow.
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