In response to questions from employers and employees alike regarding when COVID-19 constitutes a disability for purposes of the nondiscrimination and reasonable accommodations provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) recently published some updated guidance on this topic.

So-called “Long COVID” was deemed to constitute a disability under the ADA by the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services in July 2021. The EEOC’s more recent guidance, which was included as an update to its Technical Assistance Questions and Answers,[1] focuses more broadly on COVID-19 generally in the employment context under the ADA. There are several important takeaways from the EEOC’s recent guidance:

• We should apply the ADA’s definition for “disability” to COVID-19 the same way we would for any other medical condition. This means that an employee’s COVID-19 symptoms may constitute a disability under the ADA if the COVID-19 creates (1) an “actual” disability, meaning that the employee has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity; (2) a “record of” a disability, such as a disease that is in remission; or (3) a belief by the employer that the employee is “regarded as” having a disability, meaning that the employer believes the employee has an impairment. The EEOC’s guidance includes a reminder that—just like in the typical disability analysis under the ADA—the...

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