On July 16, the City of Hattiesburg's administrative team learned that three additional employees have tested positive for COVID-19.
These employees work at Hattiesburg Police Department, Hattiesburg Fire Department and Water and Sewer Department. This makes the 17th, 18th and 19th employee to test positive since March.
Below are the details for each case.
The first employee is from Hattiesburg Police Department, and this case is linked to a direct exposure shared on July 15. This employee's last day at work was Wednesday, July 15. The other 22 direct exposures linked to yesterday's case have tested negative. All in contact with this employee were tested as a part of yesterday's case, therefore this employee has no additional direct or indirect exposures.
The second employee is from the Water and Sewer Department, and is not linked to any case previously reported. This employee's last day at work was Monday, July 13. Two employees are considered direct exposures and have been scheduled for tests. Indirect exposures total 3 employees. Those employees have been offered a test out of an abundance of caution.
The third employee is from the Hattiesburg Fire Department and is not linked to any case previously reported. This employee's last day at work was June 30 due to vacation time. Because of this, this employee has no direct and indirect exposures within the city's work force.
All employees that are direct and indirect exposures for these cases have been notified of the presumptive positive test, and tests have been scheduled for both direct and indirect exposures. Tests will also be scheduled for any employee who was not directly/indirectly exposed, but who wants to be tested out of caution.
These action steps are per the Exposure & Symptoms Protocol for COVID-19. This protocol was developed based on CDC guidelines and input from the Hattiesburg medical community. It relates to any employee who is either symptomatic or had direct or indirect exposure. It relates to any employee who is either symptomatic or had direct or indirect exposure, and it can be accessed by visiting: http://www.hattiesburgms.com/wp-content/uploads/employee-exposure-protocol.pdf.
