PROVIDENCE – Local businesses and colleges on Tuesday continued to take steps to limit the spread of COVID-19, placing employees under cautionary quarantine, restricting travel and moving to online classes.
CVS Health Corp. learned on March 8 that an employee working in its Lincoln office tested positive for the coronavirus, CVS spokesperson Mike DeAngelis confirmed. In addition to the office being disinfected, CVS employees who worked in close proximity to the now-ill employee have been placed under a “cautionary quarantine” for 14 days, DeAngelis said.
Quarantined employees who are unable to work from home will be placed on paid leave during the 14-day period, DeAngelis said. He also said the ill employee has not been in the Woonsocket headquarters during the time period of the infection and declined comment when asked how many CVS employees are under quarantine.
Citizens Bank N.A. notified employees on Tuesday that a contractor who offered training at its Johnston headquarters tested positive for COVID-19. The contractor as well as affected employees were in self-quarantine, though none displayed symptoms of the disease, according to a statement from the bank.
The contractor was at the site from Feb. 24 to March 3, according to Frank Quaratiello, vice president of media relations for Citizens. Employees who attended earlier trainings have already been tested and returned to work, Quaratiello said.
Information on where the contractor lived and how many Citizens employees were affected was not immediately available.
Citizens said it has deep cleaned the area where the contractor was working and will continue to follow Centers For Disease Control And Prevention protocols for cleaning and sanitizing while “closely monitoring” the situation.
Amgen Inc., which has operations in West Greenwich, has suspended international business travel, and suspended attendance at medical congresses, conferences and other large events through April 17. Amgen spokesperson Tara Urban said the biomedical company has also implemented “enhanced” cleaning procedures and visitor screening at all Amgen locations.
Urban said Amgen employees are not required to be within a certain amount of feet from one another within the workplace, nor is the company “at the point” of asking staff to work from home in Rhode Island.
Colleges:
Bryant University said Tuesday it will move to having online classes starting March 17 through March 27 and all classrooms on campus will be closed during that period.
Bryant is also:
• Prohibiting all university-related international travel and nonessential university-related domestic air travel, while urging “great caution” in personal domestic travel.
• Urging students who were away on spring break, especially outside the U.S., to not return to campus on March 15 and to “remain at home.”
• Not allowing overnight student guests on campus. Students residing on campus are prohibited from partying on campus, and from visiting other residence halls or town houses during this period.
• Suspending all student extracurricular programming and the Chace Wellness and Athletic Center will be closed.
• Discouraging “non-essential” meetings and will either postpone or cancel all March events of 50 or more people.
The Community College of Rhode Island said Tuesday afternoon that it was expanding its suspension of school-sponsored travel to domestic trips. CCRI has already suspended international travel.
Also, CCRI canceled all events with 100 or more participants through Tuesday, April 7, including those organized by outside groups that were to be held on a CCRI campus.
Rhode Island College said Monday three students are in quarantine, as they had “direct contact” with a person “who has been diagnosed with the virus or is presumed to have the virus.” The college said one of the students lives in a residence hall, but has been with family “for several days.”
Four additional students are under “cautionary quarantine” after returning from study-abroad programs in Greece, Italy and South Korea. The students are “not aware” of having been exposed to the virus “in any way,” RIC said. The college said none of the students have symptoms of coronavirus and the students will return to campus after the quarantine period expires.
RIC has also suspended all college-sponsored international travel “until further notice.”
Brown University expanded its ban on school-sponsored international travel by also including prohibiting all domestic travel effective through “at least” May 30. This new policy applies to students and staff, Brown said, and includes “nonessential” domestic travel for “any purpose, including conferences.”
Additionally, Brown is now:
- Restricting attendance for athletic events to only team members, coaches, essential staff and three guests per team member. Out-of-season sports and practices will also be prohibited.
- All campus tours and information sessions offered by the admission’s office will be suspended Wednesday through mid-April. All prospective and new students are advised to take virtual tours of the campus online, Brown said, and the Graduate School is advised to change formats of in-person events to online “until further notice.”
Providence Business News has also rescheduled its annual Manufacturing Awards program to May 7 in response to the outbreak concerns.
(Updates throughout to ADD school, business response.)
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette. PBN staff writer Nancy Lavin also contributed to this report. Contact her at lavin@pbn.com.
no mention of any action regarding Bryant’s China campus? That would be the most obvious place to start….