“The federal government released its first detailed guidance on working amid the COVID-19 outbreak, which comes with 60 reported cases documented in the United States by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
“The guidance comes in the form of a March 3 memo from Office of Personnel Management Director Dale Cabaniss, but it represents interagency collaboration that includes the CDC, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and others…”Telework
“The memo alerts agencies to include telework options in their continuity of operations plans, ‘to ensure that telework has been fully incorporated and that as many employees as possible have been identified as telework employees in the plan, and are telework capable (or ‘telework ready’).’”
“Continuity of operation plans ‘supersede any telework policy’ that already exists at an agency. The Trump administration has been paring back on telework at agencies including the Social Security Administration, the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Interior and component agencies at the Departments of Commerce and Health and Human Services…”Travel
“The memo also asked agency heads to reduce non-essential employee travel ‘as appropriate’ and noted that feds who have been in countries designated by the Department of State as level 4 (meaning do-not-travel) should self-isolate for 14 days after returning to the U.S.”
“Foreign travel is being handled on a country-by-country basis. As of now, OPM is not asking feds to cancel pre-planned conferences that don’t fall within areas that have a level 4 travel advisory…”
Facilities
“Right now, the Facilities Security Committee housed at the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has a lead role in planning how to control access to federal workplaces. In addition, each facility has a designated official with the authority to put new access standards in place. According to the guidance, facilities managers will be tracking recommendations from federal and state health officials on controlling the spread of COVID-19…” Read the full article here.
Source: Telework, travel figure into COVID-19 guidance for feds – By Lia Russell, March 4, 2020. FCW.
