A healthcare worker performs a Covid-19 swab test at the Boulder County Fairgrounds testing site in Longmont, Colorado, on December 14, 2021.
Chet Strange / Bloomberg via Getty Images
Covid-19 infections are soaring, and ailing Americans who quit their jobs due to the virus may be wondering if they’re eligible for unemployment benefits.
Short answer: They don’t.
Had more than 1 million New US Covid cases were reported on Monday, a single-day record, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The seven-day average of new daily cases is more than 480,000.
A significant increase in the types of trees, refueling by highly contagious strains of omicron and delta viruses, are causing worker shortages and disrupting business operations. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shortened recently Covid isolation period to Five-day for those without symptoms, reduce from 10 days.
According to Michele Evermore, senior policy adviser on unemployment insurance at the US Department of Labor, individuals who test positive for Covid-19 and stay home to recover and isolate from others will ineligible for unemployment benefits.
Unemployment benefits are a type of social insurance that is paid weekly. The law requires Americans to be “able and willing” to qualify for assistance.
Evermore said an individual with Covid-19 does not meet this core requirement.
“[Unemployment insurance] Ministry of Labor Written to state workforce management agencies, the benefits regulator, in March 2020.
Not always so
This does not always happen during a pandemic. The CARES Act relief law created a temporary unemployment program that provides unemployment assistance to sick people and others (such as contract workers) who would not normally be eligible for insurance. unemployment.
The federal program, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, expired on Labor Day. (Many Republican-led states opted out of the program early, in June or July.)
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While people who test positive for Covid-19 are no longer eligible for unemployment benefits, that’s not necessarily the case for people who are isolated due to potential Covid exposure and have to quit their jobs. , Evermore said.
They may qualify because they are technically capable and willing to work, she said.
Example: Someone with an outdoor job (perhaps a lumberjack or construction worker) quarantined due to potential Covid exposure could technically do a few weeks of online work during the day. when they are in quarantine. They can work, just not their usual job.
“An individual can be quarantined or affected by Covid-19 but still be eligible to [unemployment compensation], subject to state law,” according to a Labor Department memo.
Americans with Covid-19 can get paid sick leave at their workplace, in which case they won’t need unemployment benefits.
However, temporary federal laws that boosted the ability to get paid leave earlier during the pandemic have lapsed. (Some businesses are required to provide paid sick leave, but expired end of 2020; another offers tax credits to employers to reimburse them for the cost of applying for leave, but expired September 30)
