Hi Everyone. It’s Kevin. It’s Monday, April 20. (Click here for podcast.)
There have been two cases since my last update. One individual is a carpenter who works in building 107 in Groton and was last at work on April 14. The other individual is a designer who works in New London and, due to their medical profile, self-selected to work from home starting on March 20. This individual tested positive on April 17. Of the 30 confirmed cases at Electric Boat, 20 employees are already recovered and are back to work.
Over the past few days, Connecticut and Rhode Island have issued guidance about wearing a face covering at work. Our Safety team has now distributed more than 16,000 masks across all of our facilities so that we can all comply with these requirements. I expect each member of the EB team to comply with these new requirements. While wearing a mask is cumbersome, it makes common sense, and these rules are in line with my two top priorities when it comes to combatting COVID-19: first, keeping each of you as safe as possible, and second, executing our critically important mission. Please refer to the site-specific guidance that’s been issued for details on how this new guidance impacts your day-to-day work, and talk to your supervisor about any questions you have.
Self-protection, social distancing, and other safety methods are all changes to our “normal” preparation for a day at work.
But here’s what we know—these methods are effective. They are helping to slow the spread of this disease at EB. We have 30 cases across 17,000 people at three major sites. This represents less than one half of one percent of our total workforce. More importantly, when you compare the rate of increase of the disease in New London County to EB, we have a much lower rate than the surrounding area. This means the actions we have taken to maintain social distance, issue and use PPE like hand sanitizer and masks, extra cleaning, multiple shift work, blue and gold work teams, and working from home have been effective in keeping all of us safe.
We know this is a serious illness and even one person sick is too many, so I’m grateful for all the care you’ve taken so far. If you are like me, you can’t wait to get back to a normal lifestyle. Now, the hard part is maintaining our discipline to these new standards of personal protection to ensure we keep flattening the curve and continue to keep the entire EB team as safe as possible.
Our COVID-19 response team will continue to track cases and make sure that the proper protocols are followed if a new case is reported. Your part is just as important – so please continue to:
• Maintain a safe distance of 6-feet or more from your colleagues
• Wear a face covering while at work
• Wash your hands with soap and use hand sanitizer
• And most importantly, stay home if you are sick.
Thank you for taking extra time to do the things we can all do to keep ourselves, our families and our coworkers safe. Please stay healthy and safe.
Kevin
