DERBY — An employee at the Department of Public Works tested positive for COVID-19, the mayor’s office confirmed Wednesday.
Andrew Baklik, Mayor Rich Dziekan’s chief of staff, said city hall learned of the positive test Tuesday evening.
The city called its point person at Griffin Hospital’s Griffin Hospital Occupational Medicine Center for guidance, Baklik said.
The Naugatuck Valley Health District was notified and is conducting contact tracing.
The person felt symptoms Saturday and was tested. The employee did not report to work Monday or Tuesday.
“We’ve notified all the DPW employees,” Baklik told The Valley Indy Wednesday morning. “They have the option to get tested, but we don’t have any reason to believe they had direct exposure to this individual.”
Baklik said contact tracers from the Naugatuck Valley Health District will contact people who had direct exposure with the employee 48 hours prior to the positive test. In other words, people the employee was in contact with last Thursday and Friday.
Baklik said temperature screenings of all city employees are done each morning. Social distancing and mask-mandates are being followed.
The first floor of Derby City Hall is open to the public, but members of the public are mostly restricted to a hallway, Baklik said.
The DPW building on Coon Hollow Road isn’t open to the public. Members of the public usually deal with workers through phones. A member of the public who needs in-person help is met at the building’s front entrance by a worker. The building is being cleaned according to procedures outlined by the state and CDC.
As a whole, Connecticut is seeing an uptick in its COVID-19 testing positivity rate to just over 1 percent, still better than much of the U.S. The latest report from the Naugatuck Valley Health District was posted here.
