Local county holds emergency meeting regarding coronavirus
BLACKFOOT — Bingham County commissioners called an emergency meeting Thursday morning to review and adopt a policy for all county employees regarding travel in dealing with coronavirus (COVID-19).
After hearing from Dave Lane — the county’s Human Resources Department director, speaking in Thursday’s meeting in a risk management director capacity — on the policy and receiving input, the commissioners voted unanimously to adopt the policy.
“As a county, we want to be proactive in this,” said commission Chairman Whitney Manwaring. “There are people who are going to be traveling, (commissioner) Jessica (Lewis) is going to be traveling, so it’s going to affect some people. But we need to get out in front of this as far as how we deal with it.”
A memo to county employees from the commissioners dated Thursday said the county continues to closely follow developments relating to the disease which has continued to spread internationally over the last week. The memo said the virus has sustained transmission in China, South Korea, Italy, and Iran, as well as confirmed cases in over 80 countries, including the United States.
The policy reads as follows:
“Out of an abundance of caution, the Board has adopted the following guidelines:
“A. Any employee or visitor returning from a CDC Level 3 (or higher) country or region is instructed not to come to work for fourteen (14) days after their return date. This includes traveling through airports of CDC Level 3 countries. The CDC’s current level 3 countries are China, South Korea, Iran and Italy. The list changes frequently, so please monitor the CDC website for a complete list. Talk with your supervisor to arrange working remotely. Anyone in this situation should immediately notify their medical provider.
“B. Effective immediately, if personal travel takes you through the airport of or to a CDC Level 3 country, you will be required to use your own PTO/LTB/Leave Without Pay for all work hours taken off within the aforementioned 14 days.
“C. Please explore the feasibility of postponing hosting or traveling to any large events, workshops, or conferences currently planned for March.
“D. For all travel, please limit delegation sizes to mission critical travelers only.
“E. Finally, no one should be obligated to travel at all if you feel uncomfortable doing so.”
The memo states that “for the well-being of all county employees and visitors to county facilities and given the critical nature of the virus, it is important to note that any employee violating either provision A or B ... will be subject to discipline, up to and including termination.”
“We can’t be too careful. People are coming into the courthouse all the time so we need to take precautions,” Lane said. “The Idaho National Laboratory has adopted a similar policy, and I would ask that you consider adoption of this policy.”
Lane reiterated that the 14-day period would begin once employees are back in Idaho due to the risk of any exposure in airports.
Jason Chandler from the county prosecutor’s office has been planning a personal trip to Italy and expressed some personal concerns about the policy. He said there are many areas in Italy where the risk is significantly lower, saying the county would be using “broad strokes” in its policy.
“There should be a way to apply this on a more regional basis in terms of the areas in these countries that are really affected,” Chandler said. “This is too broad of a brush.”
Chandler suggested that the 14-day period should begin when the person is leaving the country, saying the policy would have an impact on when he could come back to work.
“(The policy) should be more specific to the risk of areas in a foreign country, not the countries themselves,” he added.
Lane reiterated an “abundance of caution” in how the county deals with the issue because the situation could change rapidly.
Commissioner Mark Bair said the county has been providing hand sanitizer in the courthouse, but with the public’s concern over the virus they have seen a shortage of sanitizer.
“We are trying to deal with this locally as much as we can,” Bair said. “We are not in a panic situation, but we need to exercise caution. We’re just trying to be out in front of this. We have a responsibility to protect other employees.”
Lewis noted that the policy would impact her as well with her travel plans.
“This is a good way to protect the public,” she said while adding that the situation is changing day to day.
“If we have to fine tune (the policy), that’s understandable,” Lane said.