An employee at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s command center tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday, bringing home the disease’s dangers at the very facility where the federal government's response to the coronavirus pandemic is being managed.
According to an administration official, it is the first such positive case at FEMA’s National Response Coordination Center, which is located inside the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
After the test result, other FEMA employees temporarily left the center at the end of the day and the agency initiated aggressive deep cleaning of the facility following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency also informed employees who worked closely with that person to self-isolate and work from home.
“It poses another challenge because we have to keep our employees safe but at the same time do your jobs to help America recover from the pandemic,” the administration official said.
The coronavirus poses a unique challenge to FEMA, which is more accustomed to dealing with natural disasters like hurricanes or devastating floods. Dozens of employees work at the NRCC and to achieve social distancing, a number of people are working virtually or have spread to other parts of FEMA’s headquarters.
The NRCC is where FEMA receives all states’ requests for personal protective equipment and other supplies and works to fill those requests alongside the nearly 20 federal agencies also working in FEMA headquarters, along with other private sector and nonprofit partners.
A couple of employees on FEMA’s medical device supply chain coronavirus task force also tested positive late last week, bringing the number of people to 25 who have tested positive for Covid-19 and were working out of FEMA headquarters or other FEMA offices.
To protect its employees, FEMA has initiated 24/7 “no-contact temperature screenings” so that people who have a fever of 100.4 degrees or above aren’t permitted to enter FEMA headquarters. FEMA’s C Street headquarters and conference center are also cleaned nightly.
FEMA has so far allocated $5.2 billion to fight the pandemic, including $77 million this week to New York for medical capabilities, $55 million this week to Washington, D.C., for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build medical facilities to support a potential surge in cases and $50 million for Colorado for such facilities as well.
As part of Project Airbridge, which FEMA charters the planes for, 42 flights have also been completed as of Tuesday so that federal and private sector-procured supplies can get to states and cities to protect medical workers and others and help patients with critically needed ventilators.
More than 2,900 FEMA employees have deployed to support the Covid-19 response, according to an agency document on Monday.
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April 15, 2020 at 04:27AM
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Covid-19 case hits FEMA's coronavirus command center - POLITICO
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