There are a lot of rumblings about preparing for a state-wide shelter in place that could possibly be enacted over the weekend. The Shelter in Place intervention is a more extreme measure of social distancing, which reduces occasions for person-to-person virus transmission to help delay the spread and slow the exponential growth of a pandemic. Sheltering in place includes the following:
- Stay home unless getting food, gas or other essentials, or for medical reasons.
- Health professionals, police, firefighters and other essential service providers are still expected to go to work. And of course, grocery store clerks and gas station attendants are working, too.
- The PUD is an essential critical infrastructure and employees will be expected to support business continuity as necessary. Please contact your supervisor if you are unclear of your District role or schedule during the possibility of a declaration of a Shelter In Place.
- Going outside for a walk or exercise is allowed, and even encouraged but people are asked to keep their distance from others.
Key Points as we head into the weekend:
- If Governor Inslee orders Shelter in Place, or it may be referred to as NPI-12, then the PUD will correspondingly trigger its Pandemic Leave, which is more fully described in the Supplemental and Pandemic Leave Authorization shared with you this past week. In short, non-essential employees are to remain at their primary residence, ready to work and fit for service, while essential employees may be required to report to work. While on Pandemic Leave employees will be paid their regular wages, on Paid Administrative Leave status or regular time if working remotely.
- We will be implementing our TFCC Communications that will send a text message to all employees notifying of any important changes.
- All supervisors have a phone contact list to get in touch with employees. Please make sure you have your supervisor’s contact information in case you need to reach out.
- If you have any questions about Pandemic Leave, your work schedule, or the newly implemented timesheet coding, please reach out to your supervisor.
We continue to stress the importance of social distancing and especially want to thank all of you for working towards our goals for keeping the workplace safe.
Notes below from today’s County/City meeting:
County Emergency Operations Center
- Received delegation from all the cities
- Incident Command is in place
- Working with state on PPE supplies
Health and Human Services
- First case confirmed this morning was a 71 year old Longview resident. This resident was tested, quarantined at St. John’s and released to isolation.
- Second Longview resident was confirmed this afternoon with no additional details.
All Cities
- All are focused on figuring out how to manage their utilities in a unified way. The City of Kalama is the only one who has established a payment plan similar to ours.
Cowlitz PUD Blog 