Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Safety Protections Lacking For Millions Of Essential Workers, Report Says
As news emerged that the novel coronavirus was infecting hundreds of workers in meatpacking plants, Gregoria Rivas began worrying that her chicken processing facility in North Carolina wasn鈥檛 doing enough to protect workers like her from the virus. There was no social distancing, she said. Everywhere she went at the Case Farms plant, there were dozens of workers crowded into a small space. In the locker room, where everyone put on their uniforms. (Grabell, Yeung and Jameel, 4/16)
Vitalina Williams worked two jobs to make ends meet, at a Walmart and their local grocer, Market Basket in Salem, Massachusetts. As a newly-deemed 鈥渆ssential worker鈥 during the novel coronavirus pandemic, she continued going to work even as COVID-19 made its insidious spread through the U.S. On April 4, she passed away from the coronavirus at the age of 59. (Thorbecke, 4/17)
It seemed like a godsend to an unemployed former Mississippi college student: a seemingly secure job with a big federal contractor at a time when the coronavirus crisis was crashing the economy in her state and around the country. For Brianna Flores, 22, the added plus to working at a Maximus call center meant she could do some good by giving worried callers coronavirus guidance directly from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Siemaszko, 4/16)
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D)聽announced Thursday that the state is providing food industry workers impacted by the coronavirus two weeks of paid sick leave. The order seeks to 鈥渇ill the gap鈥 left by the federal government鈥檚 stimulus bill, which guaranteed paid sick leave for businesses that employ聽fewer than 500 people and an exemption for聽businesses聽with聽fewer than 50 employees. (Moreno, 4/16)
Indiana businesses are operating with new restrictions under Gov. Eric Holcomb's latest order to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.聽The directive issued last week聽allows essential businesses to remain open as long as they comply with social distancing requirements and recommended sanitation measures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.聽(Pak-Harvey, 4/17)
