Pennsylvania Health Secretary calls for private security to enforce 6 feet of social distancing between worker
Pennsylvania April 6 2020 Days after The Morning Call highlighted the plight of Lehigh Valley warehouse workers forced to work closely during the coronavirus crisis, Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine on Sunday signed an order mandating safety measures at distribution centers and other businesses where essential workers are needed.
Among the mandates is that employers ensure 6 feet of social distancing between workers, a measure the governor has asked people across the state to use in their daily lives but one that workers said had largely gone ignored at some warehouses.
Levine’s order, which goes into effect Monday, says security staff should be used to enforce social distancing.
The measures are to be implemented in commercial and industrial buildings of at least 50,000 square feet, including warehouses, factories, airports and grocery stores, as well as at colleges and in apartment buildings with at least 50 units.
The order outlines these protocols:
Routinely clean and disinfect high-touch areas accessible to customers, tenants, or others in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
Maintain existing cleaning protocols established in the facility for all other areas of the building.
Ensure that the facility has a sufficient number of employees to effectively carry out the protocols.
Ensure that the facility has a sufficient number of security employees to control access, maintain order, and enforce social distancing of at least 6 feet, provided the security employees are otherwise responsible for such enforcement.
Employees at several area warehouses have tested positive for the coronavirus and in a few cases, warehouses have temporarily shut down for enhanced cleaning after cases have come to light.
On Wednesday, The Morning Call published a story about conditions in some of the Lehigh Valley’s many warehouses, which are considered essential businesses and are allowed to remain open during the state’s coronavirus shutdown.
Many of the more than 15 warehouse workers interviewed by the newspaper said they felt unsafe in their workplaces and didn’t believe their employers were doing what was necessary to keep them from getting sick. Most said there was no social distancing, with one describing a staff meeting called after a worker tested positive where about 100 employees stood shoulder-to-shoulder, “like Times Square.” Because many of those who load trucks or fulfill orders in warehouses work paycheck to paycheck, they said they felt pressured to go to work.
The governor’s office suggested that workers report employers to police if they were not sanitizing work areas or ensuring that employees maintain 6 feet of distance between each other.
Levine issued the new order under her authority to take any measures appropriate to protect the public from the spread of infectious disease, she said in a news release Sunday.
“Based upon the manner of COVID-19′s spread in the commonwealth and in the world, and its danger to Pennsylvanians, I have determined that the appropriate disease control measure is the direction of building safety measures as outlined in this order to prevent and control the spread of disease,” she said.
Morning Call
