Hi everyone, this is Kevin. Today is Wednesday, March 24th (date recorded).
In early December of last year, we put in place a “yellow card” program in Groton to ensure employees wear their personal protection equipment. As a reminder, our safety program requires four types of PPE: hard hats, safety glasses, hearing protection and face coverings or masks.
The spirit of the program is to always assume positive intent, that someone just might not be aware if he or she is not wearing the appropriate PPE. While it was challenging at the beginning of the program, the results have paid off: PPE-related injuries are down in Groton, and no yellow cards have been issued for non-compliance in the last three weeks.
We are now rolling out the compliance program at Quonset Point; here’s how it works. If an employee is not wearing the required PPE, he or she will be approached by a member of the Safety or Operations teams and asked to comply. The right response is to either say “thank you” and comply or say nothing at all and comply. The employee will receive a yellow card and his or her badge number will be noted as a means to track those who may be challenged by repeated non-compliance.
I want to emphasize that face coverings and masks will continue to be required PPE while we still confront the COVID pandemic. Let’s face it—while we are seeing reasons to believe we weathered the worst, and the numbers of cases have been trending down in our area, we all know this is not over. For this reason, I ask you to continue to stay home if you’re sick, socially distance, wear your mask and get vaccinated when you are eligible in your state.
As the COVID vaccine rollout continues in our region, we continue to request vaccines from the Departments of Health in Connecticut and Rhode Island to directly administer to employees at Groton and Quonset Point just like we do with our flu-shot clinics each year. So far, the vaccine is not yet available to us as a company. I remain committed to you that we will keep trying. Ultimately, I believe the way Governor Lamont is handling vaccine distribution here in Connecticut by age is fair because it does not result in an advantage of one group over another, and we all can readily understand that age is a significant determining factor in our ability to fight an infection of COVID.
Now, if you have received the vaccine, either your first dose, or second dose, or like me you were given the Johnson and Johnson single dose, please take a moment to let EB Medical know using the link attached to the transcript or the link on the COVID page on Homeport. This information is helping us determine how the EB team is progressing with the vaccine and will allow us to gauge how many vaccines to request from Connecticut and Rhode Island in the event we get the opportunity to administer our own.
As a reminder, people who live or work in Connecticut are eligible for the vaccine if they are 45 years or older. Starting April 5, eligibility in Connecticut will include those 16 and older, so pretty much everybody who is an adult. Rhode Island’s distribution eligibility at this time is for residents 60 and older, those over 16 with underlying health conditions, health care workers, first responders, Pre K-12 teachers, staff and licensed child-care providers. Employees who are eligible for the vaccine can make appointments through the locations made available by the states; we will provide links to the Connecticut and Rhode Island vaccine portal pages on Homeport.
Thank you for your continued compliance with our PPE rules—the goal is to keep us all safe and healthy.
Thanks everyone; we’ll talk soon.
