Workers’ compensation benefits have been extended to all essential employees infected with COVID-19, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday.

Through a new executive order, anyone who works outside the home as an essential employee and contracts the novel coronavirus will be eligible for workers’ comp, Newsom said. In other words, the state will assume that employees got infected on the job.

The order includes those on the front lines like health care and public safety workers, Newsom said, and aims to “provide some calm and relief to our health care workers who are otherwise scratching their heads” as to why they haven’t been able to get benefits until now.

“As we move into this second phase, we want to keep workers healthy and keep them safe,” he said. “The worst thing we can do is have a worker that has tested positive but doesn’t want to tell anyone — but can spread the disease — because he or she can’t afford not to work.”

Benefits apply to essential employees who have been infected anytime since March 19th and will extend for 60 days, kicking in when people have exhausted other federal or state benefits.

Employers can rebut the claims, Newsom said, but only under “strict” criteria.

The governor also acknowledged the ongoing burden coronavirus has placed on California’s Latinx and black communities, who have been disproportionately hit with the virus and who are also more likely to work as essential employees.

“A disproportionate number of our black and brown community are not teleworking, are not home working,” he said. “They’re on the front lines.”

Check back for updates to this developing story.