As a result of an Executive Order issued by President Biden on January 20, 2021, federal contractors should expect new PPE requirements and possible facility access or capacity restrictions due to social distancing guidelines for personnel working at government-owned or government-leased sites. This Executive Order on Protecting the Federal Workforce and Requiring Mask-Wearing requires heads of federal agencies to take immediate action to “require compliance with CDC guidelines with respect to wearing masks, maintaining physical distance, and other public health measures by . . . on-site Federal contractors . . . in Federal buildings or on Federal lands.” The EO also creates the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force, which will be responsible for formulating additional COVID-related public health measures that might further restrict access to federal facilities. To the extent that pandemic-related public health measures further restrict federal contractor employees’ access to facilities and those employees cannot work remotely, contractors may be able to seek reimbursement for employee and subcontractor compensation under Section 3610 of the CARES Act.
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