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New Bedford mayor Jon Mitchell issued two emergency orders on Wednesday directing companies to report confirmed or suspected COVID-19 workers to the health department and require industrial facilities to adopt safety procedures to fight the spread of the coronavirus.
The first order requires all factories, assembly facilities, warehouses, and fish processing plants to have a COVID-19 health and safety officer to record temperatures of all workers at the beginning of every shift. Other measures include enacting social distancing standards, providing appropriate personal protective equipment, and performing regular cleaning and disinfection of workspaces.
The second order, which applies to all businesses, mandates that any worker that has been advised to self-quarantine or has tested positive for the coronavirus must be reported to the health department within 24 hours.
During a press conference, Mitchell stressed that companies who fail to comply with the orders could face fines of up to $300 a day and, according to the order, possible legal action.
“The idea here really is to set a basic set of ground rules,” Mitchell said. “Employers are asking, ‘So what should we be doing?’ This is the answer. This is what you should be doing to stem the virus.”
The executive order comes as the city experiences an increase in new coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and ICU admissions in recent weeks. As of Wednesday, New Bedford has 849 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 23 fatalities.
Additionally, there have been seven New Bedford businesses that have received cease and desist orders from the city related to COVID-19 since April 1. Of the seven who’ve received these orders, three were manufacturers, two were fish processing plants, one was a retail store, and one was a childcare facility.
Mitchell is hoping that requiring businesses to report COVID-19 cases to the health department will prevent larger outbreaks.
“We’ve seen instances where we just found out late about a small outbreak in a place of employment,” Mitchell said. “And if it had been reported to us we might have caught on to it earlier and been able to isolate people more quickly.”
One such outbreak occurred at Blue Harvest Fisheries in late-April. The fish processor was required to cease all operations after it was discovered that three employees tested positive for the coronavirus. The facility has since reopened under new safety measures.
Helena DaSilva Hughes, executive director of the Immigrant’s Assistance Center in New Bedford, says it’s important that the executive orders covered businesses like fish processing facilities which have been operating as essential businesses since the start of the pandemic.
Now, she says, it’s pertinent to increase testing for fish plant workers, many who are immigrants working for temp agencies.
“I think that screening employees is definitely a step in the right direction,” DaSilva Hughes said. “But a lot more testing needs to be done.”
The orders are expected to impact over 3,000 industrial park workers, 7,000 workers at the Port of New Bedford, and hundreds of fish plant workers.
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