The City of Lawton has measures in place to respond to city employees who have tested positive for COVID-19.
City officials said last week that although they can’t discuss specifics, they already knew some city employees had tested positive for the virus even before the day-long voluntary testing event coordinated by the City of Lawton and others for city employees and the general public on July 1. Tiffany Vrska, the city’s community relations director, said more than 100 city employees volunteered to be tested.
Prior to the event, city administrators knew that employees testing positive for COVID-19 had been found in the finance, fire and emergency communications departments, and steps were taken to quarantine those people until they tested negative and to require those who were exposed to those individuals to be tested themselves.
Vrska said city leadership “is closely monitoring the situation in all departments, large and small,” because positive results in any employee could potentially affect any city department. She said the city has tried to educate, advise and mandate safety precautions for all employees, to include mandates for masks and social distancing and sanitation protocols.
“We also have contingency plans in place for city departments,” she said.
Today, there are no additional plans that will affect the public, such as cutting city operational hours or mandating masks. While city employees must wear masks when interacting with each other and the public, city leaders only ask members of the public who visit Lawton City Hall and other city facilities to “please wear a mask” in signs posted around the buildings.
“This is for the safety of the public, as well as for the safety of our employees,” Vrska said.
Mayor Stan Booker said at a virtual town hall meeting last week that Lawton would continue to follow the lead of Gov. Kevin Stitt concerning mandates for masks for the general public while in public places. Stitt has said while he and others encourage masks, especially among vulnerable populations, he would not mandate masks to be worn in public because that would become an enforcement issue.
Texas, Kansas and New Mexico governors have taken that step, and in Oklahoma, Norman and Stillwater have mandated masks in public places. The University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University have said students will have to wear masks when they return to campus in August; Cameron University has not made that decision. Locally, Comanche County Commissioners have mandated that masks be worn by employees and visitors in the county courthouse, and masks are mandatory for anyone involved in court-related activities in district courtrooms.
Stitt said last week that municipalities may make the decision to require masks in their cities. City of Lawton officials said that could be done by the mayor and mayor pro tem with a Civil State of Emergency declaration (Booker said Thursday there is no support for that declaration) or through the discretion of the city manager as a safety precaution for anyone entering city facilities or attending city functions.
Vrska said city leadership will continue to monitor the situation.
City Manager Michael Cleghorn issued a directive to his employees June 22 that requires them to wear masks in almost all situations, with supervisors and department heads held responsible for enforcing compliance. Cleghorn said those who were ignoring what had been a recommendation “have put their coworkers, families and friends at risk by not adhering to given precautions.”
The directive means city employees must wear masks while working with coworkers, interacting with the public and using public/common areas. Violations will be subject to disciplinary actions, Cleghorn said.
Cleghorn provided three exceptions to his mandate: if wearing the mask poses a safety hazard while performing job duties; if an employee provides a doctor’s note stating he/she cannot/should not wear a mask; and if an employee is alone in an enclosed personal office space.
Other requirements for city employees:
• Social distancing must be strictly practiced to the maximum extent possible. That action already is being observed at public meetings by bodies such as the City Council, where council members are spaced suitable for social distancing on the council floor and members of the audience are limited to where they may sit.
• Anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 may not return to work until he/she has no COVID-19 symptoms, has received two negative tests in a row at least 24 hours apart, has quarantined for 14 days and has been cleared by a health care provider. Those who work with or share facilities with someone who tested positive is expected to schedule a COVID-19 test themselves, even if they were not exposed. Exposure is defined as being with 6 feet of a positive patient for 15 minutes or longer, under Cleghorn’s directive.
• Work spaces and high touch areas will be disinfected on a frequent basis and anyone using a common area (such as a meeting room) is responsible for disinfecting after each use.
