Hollywood’s studios and guilds have extended the COVID-19 safety protocol expiration date to April 30, with plans to once again meet close to that date to make any potential revisions.
According to the SAG-AFTRA website, changes have been made to the protocols for the first time since last July, when studios were given the option to enforce vaccine mandates for certain productions in “Zone A,” the section of a set where filming directly takes place.
As part of the changes, the definition for “fully vaccinated” includes a booster shot, meaning that workers under vaccine mandates must receive a booster. Productions must also now provide workers KN95 masks, the highest form of protective medical masks, in an effort to counter the spread of more contagious variants of COVID-19 like Omicron.
All union members under the agreement now also have their COVID-19 sick leave time replenished to 10 days, a formal move the studios and guilds agreed to last year to ensure that actors and crew members who work on multiple productions a year have sick leave in case they are infected or exposed to someone infected with COVID-19.
Finally, new types of rapid antigen tests have been approved for use by productions. As previously reported by TheWrap, studios and guilds are looking to increase use of antigen tests among workers who test positive and have to quarantine after the CDC changed its guidelines to allow those who test positive to end quarantine after five days if they no longer have symptoms.
Those guidelines assume that those who end quarantine early are able to continue social distancing, making it inapplicable for most film and TV productions. However, guild insiders tell TheWrap that antigen tests are seen as a more reliable way to determine when someone who has been infected is no longer shedding the virus than PCR tests, which are good for detecting an initial positive but can give a positive reading days or even weeks after a person is first infected.
The extension comes as health officials in Los Angeles County have loosened mask mandates for outdoor settings and large gatherings like music concerts and sports events, though masks are still required in indoor public spaces. The seven-day average COVID infection rate in Los Angeles has dropped from over 40,000 cases per day to just under 5,000, though that total is still higher than the surge seen from the Delta variant in August 2021.