COVID-19—the end of the beginning

Most thought COVID-19 would be a short-term crisis. Remember, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) early slogan was “15 days to slow the spread.” The consensus solution was to wash our hands, keep socially distant, and shut down the country for a couple of months. Assuming the problem would be short-lived, Congress provided limited relief including bailouts for certain industries, Payroll Protection Program grant/loans to cover small-business payrolls for 60 days, stimulus checks to most families, enhanced unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for six months, and new coronavirus paid leave benefits that expire on December 31, 2020.

Well, you probably know—even with a vaccine on the horizon—we are maybe only at the halfway point. What does that mean for employers in 2021?

First, the bad news

Things did not go exactly according to plan. To be fair, there really was no coordinated plan from the get-go. At the outset, when large cities on the West Coast and New York City were seeing a huge spike in coronavirus cases, there was a critical scarcity of personal protective equipment (PPE) like masks, face guards, and gloves, which was quickly followed by a perceived shortage of ventilators. Those problems were resolved, but a lingering shortage of basic cleaning supplies remains. Also, we still don’t have enough testing capacity to screen every American on demand and regardless of symptoms, something important to do, because asymptomatic people carry and spread the infection.