VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — As part of a new effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Virginia Beach city workers will have to do their own “COVID-19 self-check each day before coming to work” and report that information to the city.
City manager Patrick Duhaney outlined the new requirement in a letter sent to city council on Friday. The city’s Occupational Safety and Health Services Manager Scott Kalis explained it’s all done through a new online platform.
“Everything that’s done is done in an autonomous manner. It doesn’t tell anybody what your symptoms are, so it’s both HIPAA and ADA protected, but it does tell us your status,” Kalis said.
“So it already knows, when you log into the system, what building you work in or what your employee number is.”
Employees answer questions identified by the Health Department and the CDC regarding potential COVID-19 exposure. Things like: “Have you been traveling recently?” Or, “Do you have a fever or any coronavirus symptoms?”
It’s all anonymous.
“It graphs the status," Kalis said. "It doesn’t tell anybody what your status is. But as an aggregate, the city leadership can say out of 7,000 employees we have 15 who are ill with COVID.”
Kalis said city leadership can then analyze the data and make decisions.
According to Duhaney’s letter, the online platform will provide immediate feedback to employees as to whether they should stay home or report to work.
Duhaney said in his letter: Virginia Beach is seeing a "concerning increase" in COVID-19 cases and "this increase is also being reflected within our workforce."
He said the month of July resulted in more positive cases among workers than in the months of March, April, May, and June combined.
“If a large portion of our Parks & Rec department was ill, we might not be able to open up our rec centers," Kalis said. "If a large portion of our fire department was ill or out sick, we might have to shift people around to back-fill at other stations.”
Those are just examples, but Kalis said some employees are teleworking out of an abundance of caution.
The city manager said in his letter, that’s encouraged.
Duhaney said in the letter, the city is "taking significant steps" to ensure the health and safety of workers.
Crews installed clear plastic barriers and shields in city-owned buildings; there are enhanced cleaning guidelines; face coverings are required for employees when maintaining six feet of space from another person is not possible, and employees get paid time for medical leave or childcare issues related to COVID-19.