extrusion plant has 26 workers with COVID-19...

The spread of Covid-19 at our workplaces is a hazard that our industry has to deal with. Here is a recent story highlighting this hazard:

Two more (town name omitted) workplaces — (international shipping company) and a aluminium extrusion manufacturer — have been hit with coronavirus outbreaks in Canada.

Region public health reports 26 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at aluminium extrusion company (has two locations).

The (international shipping company) plant has 21 confirmed cases.

Two of the confirmed cases at (international shipping company) are local Region residents. None of the cases at an aluminium extrusion company are in people who reside in in the Region.

In both incidents, contacts of confirmed cases are being followed up by the region’s public health.

York Region public health conducted on-site inspections at AWD on May 8, and at (international shipping company) May 14.

Both outbreaks have been referred to the Ministry of Labour — a standard approach when there is an occupational exposure.

COVID-19 preventive measures in place at the shipping centre include health screening questionnaires conducted verbally for all employees every shift, employee health policy modifications to reflect COVID-19 symptoms, physical distancing measures such as floor markers in the lineup to sign in, and administrative measures such as signs, staggered breaks and lunches and meetings done virtually. 

As well, (International Shipping Company) has provided hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes in high traffic areas, offices and the lunch room, eliminated seating in the lunch room and made mandatory wearing of masks and daily temperature checks. 

Fumigation is completed every weekend, according to a public notice on the region’s COVID-19 web page.

A public health statement says there would have been no exposure to customers. 

A statement on the (International Shipping Company) website says the World Health Organization and Public health Agency of Canada have stated that the likelihood of COVID-19 contaminating cardboard or other shipping containers is low. York University biochemistry professor Gerald Audette says the main way to catch COVID-19 is not from boxes, but unwashed hands. If you are concerned about parcel delivery, he advises leaving the package in your garage for a few days and, more importantly, washing your hands thoroughly with soap after you have opened the parcel and leaving the packaging in your recycle bin.

AWD coronavirus preventive measures include: disinfection of offices and plants using an external company, staff education, physical distancing, good hygiene practices including hand washing and sanitizing, sanitizing high touch surfaces frequently, distribution of individual hand sanitizers to all employees, hand sanitizing stations placed throughout the manufacturing plant, disinfectant spray distributed to departments to sanitize tools, distribution of reusable masks and installation of handwashing stations.

The drug store worker who tested positive was last at the store on May 19, a public statement said.

In addition to a thorough deep-clean and sanitization of the store, Shoppers is reaching out to the local public health authority to investigate the employee’s recent shifts and direct contacts.

Any potentially exposed employees were instructed to stay home and self-isolate and, "out of an abundance of caution", the store is notifying customers who recently shopped there.

"We understand that you may have questions and want to assure you that we take your safety, and the safety of our team, very seriously," the statement from drug store said. "We will work with the local public health team on any further directions and encourage you to reach out to them if you need more information."

We pray that each worker recovers fully from COVID-19. We have purposely chose not to name the companies in this news article. We believe this blog has been successful because we chose not to place blame on the company nor the worker. We pray that by bringing awareness to incidents we can prevent recurrence. We may never know but we assume that transmission of COVID-19 occurred at work. Social distancing and good housekeeping are needed to mitigate the transmission.

The Aluminium International Today magazine had a recent article on this topic. It can be downloaded here.

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