The National Safety Council and Other Call for Coronavirus Tests for all US Businesses and Worksites
As of April 15, 2020, more than 50 organizations urged the government in a letter to make COVID-19 testing available to employers maintaining operations during the pandemic.
This week, the National Safety Council and more than 50 other organizations with employees at worksites across the country penned a letter to Vice President Pence urging the federal government to provide COVID-19 testing resources to employers with workers engaged in essential business services.
The NSC understands priority for virus testing will be rightly given to the healthcare sector, but it implores the government to remember many workplaces are still operating and being exposed to the virus.
The possibility of much of the infected population being asymptomatic with the virus, workers could be at high risk for contracting COVID-19 without realizing it, and workplace access to testing should be a priority as testing supplies becomes more abundant, the letter expresses.
“We cannot flatten the curve without protecting our nation's workers, many of whom have continued reporting to traditional worksites in the midst of this global pandemic, unable to work remotely,” said Lorraine M. Martin, president and CEO of the National Safety Council. “We must protect these workers, and one of the best ways to do so is by conducting more tests. As soon as tests are widely available, we expect that our nation's employers will have access to them.”
The letter continues: “a lack of easily accessible COVID-19 testing means that some of our employees may unknowingly be coming to work and spreading the disease to their co-workers and the public.”