Health officials in Marin County urged employers and residents on Monday to continue taking precautionary measures against the coronavirus after 43 employees at a waste management company tested positive.
The Marin Sanitary Service employees who tested positive, most of whom were asymptomatic, were among 288 tested after the county’s contact tracing investigators started communicating with those close contacts to the first confirmed case, Dr. Lisa Santora, the county’s deputy health officer, said in a statement. Three more employees were confirmed to have the virus.
An assessment of the facility last week led county health officials to identify “heightened risk of transmission” during break and lunch hours, when some employees did not maintain physical distance from each other and some were found not wearing face coverings, Santora said.
She called the actions “consistent with other worksite outbreaks.” The waste company was increasing “infection prevention,” such as adding another handwashing station.
County health officials and Kaiser Permanente also plan to return to the facility this week to offer more information about the virus.
“With easing of shelter-in-place restrictions, COVID-19 activity will continue to increase countywide, which increases the probability of outbreaks in congregate facilities and worksites,” Santora said. “This outbreak along with other worksite outbreaks shows the importance of staying vigilant throughout our day by limited social activity; maintaining social distancing; covering faces; and washing hands frequently.”
Patty Garbarino, president of Marin Sanitary Service, said the employees who tested positive worked on a sorting line that pulls recyclable material. County health officials decided to test all 288 employees after the company became a hot spot “by virtue of rapidly growing numbers.”
None of the employees who have the virus interacted with the public and none have been hospitalized, Garbarino said.
The first case among employees was confirmed June 6, and company executives started recording a new case each day until mid-June when officials started confirming several cases daily, Garbarino said.
The outbreak appears to be the result of mid-March shelter-in-place restrictions being loosened in late May, along with the Memorial Day weekend and people becoming more complacent about wearing masks and other personal protective equipment, Garbarino said. County health officials told the company they are monitoring a possible trend of outbreaks in the Bay Area.
“It was just a perfect storm. They called us the first wave,” Garbarino said.
She emphasized the importance of wearing a face mask and praised Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order last week that requires all Californians to wear a mask outside of their homes.
“I think the important thing is that everyone remain calm and that we are all absolutely emphatic about wearing our masks,” Garbarino said. “It’s all about mask wearing and we can’t relax on that.”
The outbreak appeared to be among the first at a Bay Area waste management company.
One employee at San Francisco’s Recology has tested positive out of 1,100 workers, company spokesman Robert Reed said. The worker was part of a crew that collects trash and recycling in the city’s Financial district. Another Recology employee, who does not work in the trash and recycling units, also tested positive.
The company has installed handwashing stations, staggered start times for drivers and implemented social distancing protocols at recycling plants in efforts to prevent any such outbreak, Reed said. But as long as the virus lingers, the company will remain cautious.
“We’ve been braced with many safety protocols. We were taking additional steps very early on, even in February we ordered a lot of additional (personal protective equipment) and we made safety protocols to protect against the virus the focus of our safety meetings,” Reed said. “We’re remaining very diligent. We’re taking this very seriously.”
Laine Hendricks, a Marin County spokeswoman, said officials have observed minor outbreaks of at least three cases at grocery stores, as well as some gatherings that are not workplaces, such as a party and a sleepover.
“We understand there is this desire after 100-plus days of shelter in place to want to reconnect with people,” she said. “But, yeah, people are diving right back into what was normal. It’s risky to rush back into normal in a COVID-present environment.”
Alejandro Serrano and Anna Kramer are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: [email protected], [email protected] Twitter: @serrano_alej @anna_c_kramer
