Working as a paramedic, EMT or EMS poses inherent dangers, especially during the Coronavirus pandemic. As part of your duties, you are required to go into homes that are not your own and administer hands-on medical assistance to individuals in need.

As Coronavirus-related restrictions phase-out, more Minnesotans, including a significant number of healthcare workers, including nurses, are contracting Coronavirus (COVID-19). In fact, on May 20, 2020, the Star Tribune reported that “health care workers constitute 1,949 of Minnesota’s 17,029 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19.” [1]

As Minnesota first responders may know, the Minnesota legislature recently passed legislation to create a workers’ compensation statutory presumption for those individuals who contract COVID-19 while performing first responder duties (Minn. Stat. § 176.011). Hopefully, this legislation will serve to provide immediate workers’ compensation medical expense and wage loss coverage for our State’s first responders who are at greatest risk for contracting COVID-19 while engaged in critical services in our communities.

In response to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak, our state government has taken swift and decisive action to financially protect Minnesota’s first responders who contract the virus.