Brandon Hudgins works on the pitch of Fleet Feet, a chain of running shoe stores, for more than 30 hours a week. Chat with consumers, measure your feet, and quickly enter and exit the garage domain to locate waist shoes. lower his mask as he speaks. Others refuse to wear a mask at all.
He’s involved with COVID-19. And rightly so. In the United States, COVID-related hospitalizations and deaths are reaching new all-time highs, and the country recorded 198,633 new cases on Friday. In California, the number of COVID instances is expanding at the fastest pace to date.
However, unlike the early days of the pandemic, many retail establishments across the country are not closing and normal COVID testing of staff remains asymmetrical at best.
“I asked, what if a member has any symptoms?”You have to stay in the house,” said Hudgins, 33, who works in High Point, North Carolina. But as an employee for hours, staying in the house means you’re not paid. “stressful, especially without normal testing. Our store isn’t very big and you’re there all day. “
To the store’s credits, Hudgins stated that the manager had instituted a closed-door policy, in which workers who can enter consumers disinfect the room’s dominance among consumers and perform normal worker temperature checks, however, there is no consultation of testing workers to detect COVID-19. Fleet Feet has not responded to multiple requests to discuss its testing policies.
The Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued rules for employers to conduct COVID screenings and pleaded with others who are very closely tested regularly; however, the federal government does not require employers to provide such evidence.
But the Board of Directors of california’s Occupational Safety and Health Division, known as Cal/OSHA, on Thursday passed emergency protection regulations that will soon require state employers to provide COVID evidence to all personnel exposed to an employee-free paint epidemic. Tests will be repeated a week later, followed by regular tests.
California would be the first state to impose this, regulations do not apply to regime worker testing. It is based on individual companies.
Workplaces have been the source of major coronavirus outbreaks: a poultry processing facility at Foster Farms in the central valley of the city of Livingston, grocery stores in Los Angeles, a housing complex for farm staff in Ventura County, Amazon warehouses, largely among the so-called must-have personnel bearing the brunt of COVID infections and deaths.
The U. S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration has not been able to do so. But it’s not the first time Inspects workplaces in workers’ court cases; more than 40,000 of which similar to COVID-19 have been filed with the company nationally and federally.
In California, Cal/OSHA has cited workplaces for COVID-related violations to date, representing more than $1. 5 million in proposed penalties.
Workers “have every one and every right to be concerned,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. “They paint in the fog. Companies have little economic incentive for who has COVID where.
Wait for symptoms to appear before considering the tests, Chin-Hong noted. People may not have any symptoms when the virus spreads. A CDC report found that 44% of others with active infections reported no symptoms.
However, tests alone cannot be used. Although workplaces can vary greatly, Chin-Hong is under pressure on the importance of enforcing protection rules, such as social distance and the use of face masks, as well as being transparent with staff when someone gets sick.
Molly White, who works for the Missouri state government, had to return to the workplace once a week from July, but White, who is taking medication to inhibit her immune system, feared “her employer’s arrogant attitude toward cOVID and occasional risk-taking. “Workers are encouraged to wear masks, but they are not mandatory, and there is no testing policy or even an indication of where they should be tested,” he said. White called for and won an exception to the U. S. Disability Act. USA, Which lasts until the end of the year, to enter the workplace.
After a group of 39 COVID cases gave the impression in September on the construction where she works, White was relieved to at least get an email informing her of the outbreak. A few days later, Gov. Mike Parson visited the construction and tested positive for COVID-19 a short time later.
Following tension from trade union groups, Amazon reported in a blog post last month that nearly 20,000 workers had tested positively or allegedly positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began. owns Whole Foods, has built its own testing facilities, hired lab technicians and announced plans to conduct 50,000 tests at 650 sites this month.
The National Football League evaluates players and other must-have staff on a daily basis. An NFL spokesman said the league conducted between 40,000 and 45,000 tests consistent with the week through BioReference Labs in New Jersey, the two organizations refused to be consistent with a prize percentage. According to summer reports, the season’s testing program would charge approximately $75 million.
Not all companies, especially those that are not the center of attention, have the interest (or money) of test workers.
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“It depends on the company how much it cares,” said Gary Glader, president of Horton Safety Consultants in Orland Park, Illinois. Horton works with dozens of companies in the manufacturing, structure and transportation sectors to expand exposure plans and reduce the threat of COVID-19 outbreaks and avoid OSHA subpoenas. “Some corporations care less about their employees, ever. “
IGeneX, a diagnostic testing company in Milpitas, California, receives about 15 calls a day from companies across the country to be informed about its employer testing program. The lab works with about a hundred employers, from 10-person suits to two professional sports groups. – Basically in the Bay Area. IGeneX tests its own staff every two weeks.
One visitor is Tarana Wireless, a nearby telecommunications company that wants about 30 workers at a time to operate the equipment. In addition to monthly COVID testing, construction is also cleaned every two hours and the mask is mandatory.
“It’s a burden,” said Amy Beck, the company’s human resources director. “We are funded through venture capital and have made wage cuts to increase our money. But we do this to make everyone feel safe. We don’t have unlimited resources. “
IGeneX offers 3 prices, depending on the amount of time a company gets the results: $135 for a polymer chain reaction (PCR) check with a delay of 36 to 48 hours, up to approximately $100 according to verification for some high-volume customers; One-day checks charge $250 and $400 for six hours of waiting.
In some cases, IGeneX will bill for the enterprise fitness insurance plan.
“Absolutely, it’s expensive,” said IGeneX spokesman Joe Sullivan. “I don’t blame myself for not paying as little as possible. It’s not “one and done “what corporations take into account. “
In addition, less expensive and faster features, such as Abbott’s antigen test, promoted through the Trump administration, have been criticized for their inaccuracy.
For those going to work, Chin-Hong recommends that corporations review their workers once a week with PCR controls, or twice a week with less delicate antigenic controls.
Ideally, Chin-Hong said, public fitness facilities would work directly with employers to administer COVID tests and eliminate potential outbreaks. Free network painting test sites can take days or weeks. to return to the results, bogged down by excessive convening in advertising laboratories such as Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp and chain-of-origin issues.
Hudgins, who receives his fitness insurance through the North Carolina State Stock Exchange, is looking to pass a monthly COVID check on CVS at his own pace, but his insurance, which requires safe criteria to qualify, refused to pay for it, he said. .
“Being in the service sector in a state where numbers are ridiculously high,” he said in an email, “I see a lot of other guys every day, and I think getting tested is the smartest and most worried thing to do. “
This story produced through Kaiser Health News, an independent publishing program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Hannah Norman as hannahn@kff. org, @hnorms