Although Lane County does not yet have a confirmed case of Coronavirus, we wanted to update you on our planned response. Keeping you and our customers safe and healthy is a top priority. This is a quickly-changing situation and we do not know exactly when additional steps will be necessary, but for now, here is where we are at.
This virus can spread quickly via person to person contact but does not appear at this time to be an airborne illness so you should be safe out of doors. The virus can live on inanimate objects and could potentially be transferred through the handling of anything including handshaking. Although most individuals who contract it will recover without incident, approximately 15-20% will have more serious cases. Those considered “highest risk” include adults age 60 and older, and/or anyone with a serious health condition.
We have already been taking steps to protect against transmission of the virus including enhanced cleaning of high-touch areas in our offices and buildings, encouraging hand-washing and the use of hand sanitizer and discouraging anyone coming to work who is showing signs of any illness.
Our plans for preventing an escalation in local virus spread are as follows:
1. If you come to work and we determine you are ill, we will send you home. If your job can be done from home, we will attempt to accommodate that. This means there could be reduced staffing at times so we will ask that everyone who is healthy continue to work hard and support each other.
2. We will be cleaning high touch areas more frequently. Entry doors to buildings and RVs/Autos will be cleaned at least 3 times a day.
3. We will be reducing the number of in person meetings we have on a weekly basis and conducting them via conference call or skype whenever possible. Restricting the number of meetings should decrease the opportunity for person-to-person transmission.
4. We will ask you to keep a distance of 3 feet when speaking to someone in person.
5. We are closely monitoring information from both the CDC and the Oregon Health Authority and will adjust our plans as necessary based on the latest information received. If the virus spread continues to escalate through the community, we will address issues as the need warrants.
6. We will update you as much as we can about what we know and attempt to answer any questions you may have.
7. We will follow guidelines from local health professionals and the Oregon Health Authority as they come to us. Any changes and updates to our response will be shared with you via email, Facebook and posted on our website.
8. We will do our best to keep the Guaranty staff and our customers safe while doing business as usual. This will include discouraging handshakes.
9. We will establish a system to monitor any of you who are placed in house quarantine and attempt to make sure you have enough food and supplies to complete your quarantine.
In the meantime, if you have any symptoms of a cold, the flu or COVID-19, please stay home. These symptoms may include fever, cough, shortness of breath and general malaise. If you are personally diagnosed with the Coronavirus, or have had contact with someone who is diagnosed, and have had any interactions at Guaranty, please notify us immediately. You can reach the HR office by calling any of the extensions or Lindsey Johnson directly at x4012 and our email is HR [email protected].
These are uncertain times but we have survived uncertain times before and we will survive this as long as we stick together.
Thank you for your support and understanding. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Ed Morgan
General Manager
