Waterville city manager says staffer has been out sick with COVID-19 for 2 weeks

WATERVILLE — A city employee has been sick with COVID-19 and out of work about two weeks.

City Manager Steve Daly told the City Council about the case Tuesday night, saying several city departments have been affected by COVID-19 over the last year.

“It’s impacted the city’s police, fire, city hall and now the public works departments as a result of contact with people outside the organization who tested positive,” Daly said. “We have one case of an employee ill with COVID-19 and that person has been quite ill with it — has been out of work about two weeks now. They’ll remain at home until they test negative for whatever the required protocol is before they return to work.”

Daley said fire Chief Shawn Esler and the city’s human resources director, Bobbie-Jo Green, “have been monitoring all these situations and applying the policy protocols that were previously decided on. In all cases, we are following those protocols.”

Also, Esler is working with local medical care professionals to get all public safety staff vaccinated, according to Daly.

“That’s underway and progressing,” he said.

Contacted on Wednesday, Daly provided statistics on at least two city departments and said he likely would have additional information later this week.

The police department reported it has had four employees test positive for the virus. Three likely contracted it from outside the department and one from within, according to the department report.

The cases have not impacted the police department’s ability to provide or receive mutual aid from neighboring agencies, according to officials.

Two people at the fire department tested positive, according to information from that department, which noted that Waterville has one of the most aggressive pandemic policies and employee testing programs of any city in Maine.

That policy has been beneficial on many levels and has helped to contain the spread of the virus throughout the workforce, according to the report. It says fire officials have not heard of any circumstances where COVID-19 has jeopardized mutual aid relationships, either from providing or receiving mutual aid.

Daly said residents should be proud of how effective the city’s COVID-19 management policy has been at keeping city services functioning during this uncertain time.