100 City of Columbia workers have tested positive for COVID-19 since March
The number of City of Columbia government employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic has hit triple digits.
One hundred City of Columbia employees have tested positive for the coronavirus in the past nine months, according to city officials. That represents about 4.3 percent of the municipality’s workforce of roughly 2,300 employees.
“One hundred employees ... out of 2,300, since March,” City Manager Teresa Wilson said at Tuesday’s Columbia City Council meeting, referring to positive COVID-19 cases. “Those positive cases typically have come from social interactions, not in the workplace. We appreciate the effort (council) has allowed us to continue down the path in a safe way.”
The city has taken steps to slow the spread of the coronavirus. It has restricted public access to certain municipal buildings, for instance, and Columbia City Council continues to meet virtually, rather than in-person with an audience at City Hall.
But Wilson was quick to note that many city employees — police officers, sanitation workers, water department personnel, etc. — are in-the-field workers, and continue their jobs as safely as possible.
“The front-line staff, I have to give them a shout out, because they haven’t missed a beat,” Wilson said. “They have remained working. There may be some offices we’ve closed intentionally to keep everyone safe. But 80 percent of our staff is working on the front lines everyday, and the other 20 percent are just working differently. That’s so the water is clean and the trash is picked up, and all of the things a municipal government does.”
The city’s positive COVID-19 numbers track very closely, in terms of percentage, with the state of South Carolina as a whole. As of Tuesday, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control had reported more than 205,000 positive cases of the coronavirus. In a state of about 5.1 million people, that comes to roughly 4 percent of the population.
There has been a COVID-19-related death among city employees. In July, Columbia Police Officer Robert Hall — a 35-year veteran of the force — died from complications associated with the virus. Hall, who had been a key player in planning security for events in the city’s entertainment districts, was 57.
Positive coronavirus cases in governmental entities haven’t been uncommon in the Midlands. For instance, the 11th Circuit Solicitor’s Office recently had several employees test positive.
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin previously said it could be “late spring or early summer” before city council begins meeting in-person again, even as some council members have expressed interest in exploring ways to meet safely face-to-face. The third-term mayor reiterated his stance at Tuesday’s council meeting.
“We are going to do what we’ve always done, which is follow the data, follow the science,” Benjamin said. “We want to make sure we protect the health of our staff and the citizens who come visit with us, and certainly our fellow colleagues on council. We are eager to be back together. This group actually genuinely likes each other and loves each other.
“But we are going to make sure we are continuing to model the type of behavior we want others to engage in.”
This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 11:34 AM.
