Hollywood’s COVID-19 security protocols, agreed upon by the entertainment industry’s top studios and guilds, have been officially extended to September 30, with two minor changes.
The last renewal of the agreement, obtained by: The Hollywood Reporter and publicly posted by the Directors Guild, will come into effect Saturday after the current agreement expires Friday. The deal fixes that when COVID levels are high, entertainment sets will not allow employees who are not fully vaccinated to partake in self-service meals using common utensils such as tongs or spoons. In addition, when COVID levels are high, the agreement will allow all vehicles carrying cast and crew to operate at full capacity (previously, vehicles could only be 75 percent full at the time). Everyone in a vehicle must still be masked.
“If a vehicle contains a passenger who is not wearing a face mask (for example, a cast member whose makeup has been applied), passengers must observe physical distancing,” the agreement reads. THR reported on Thursday that the agreement would be extended again until September 30.
The COVID “Return to Work” agreement has been in effect since September 2020 and has since been extended several times, sometimes with revisions. A July 2021 update introduced vaccine guidelines for the first time.
This latest expansion follows an update in early May that relaxed certain requirements in areas such as testing and masking, in parts of the United States and Canada with “low” COVID hospital admissions.
The new extension arrives as the Omicron sub-variant BA.5 continues to spread across the country, and Los Angeles itself reached the “high” COVID community level as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday. According to the Los Angeles Times California coronavirus trackerthe state has recorded 17,182 new cases and 37.1 new deaths in the past week.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health recently identified outbreaks of: three or more confirmed cases of COVID-19 at Mattel in El Segundo, Riot Games near Sawtelle and Warner Bros. studios in Burbank.
The agreement ensures that the rules become stricter when hospital admissions for COVID-19 in an area reach a threshold. “Right now, due to the recent surge, productions across all major manufacturing centers are implementing the stronger protocols in Part 1 of the agreement,” the Directors Guild said. mentioned in the latest extension announcement. “As circumstances change, the agreement will allow productions to relax protocols in areas where they are experiencing low COVID hospitalization rates.”