California reports sharp drop in COVID claims

The California Workers Compensation Institute said wild fluctuations in COVID-19 claim volume continued into early 2022, soaring to an all-time high in January, then dropping more than 90% in February.

“The new monthly tallies show that as the omicron variant spread at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, the COVID-19 claim count increased more than sixfold between November and December, then doubled from 21,55 cases in December to 46,331 cases in January before plunging back down to 3,294 cases in February,” CWCI said in a March 16 bulletin.

Those figures will increase as claims are still being reported for those months, but CWCI projections that control for late reporting show the same pattern, with sharp increases in December and January followed by a huge dropoff in February.

CWCI said its analysis of claims reported as of March 7 shows COVID-19 accounted for 18.3% of all comp claims since the pandemic started. The latest assessment also highlights the volatility and unpredictability of pandemic claims, which jumped from 33.9% of all claims in December to 55.2% of all claims in January before falling to 10% of the claims filed in February.

“These huge fluctuations have required employers to remain vigilant in monitoring and reporting COVID cases, as Cal/OSHA’s COVID-19 emergency temporary standards require employers to report three or more coronavirus cases detected within a 14-day period,” CWCI said.

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