City Reports BFD Employee is First New COVID-19 Case Among Workforce in Five Weeks

Bloomington, Ind. - A Bloomington Fire Department (BFD) employee is the first City worker to report a positive result of a COVID-19 viral test in five weeks.  The employee began experiencing symptoms on Thursday, June 10 and received a positive COVID-19 viral test result on Saturday, June 12.  No close contacts were identified among the employee's coworkers or the general public.  (Close contact is defined by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as someone who was within six feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes starting from two days before illness onset--or, for asymptomatic clients, two days prior to positive specimen collection--until the time the patient is isolated.)  This is the sixteenth BFD staff member to report a positive COVID-19 viral test result over the last fifteen months.  

Since the start of the pandemic, 86 positive COVID-19 viral test results have been reported by City workers, including those employed by the municipal corporations that operate the water utility (City of Bloomington Utilities), transit system (Bloomington Transit), and public housing (Bloomington Housing Authority).  Additionally, COVID-19 was listed among the causes of death of one City worker.

COVID-19 at the City of Bloomington (since March 2020):

• Sixteen total cases were reported during the eight months from March through October 2020.

• That monthly rate rose more than eight-fold in November, when 17 cases were reported within the single month, and rose another 29% in December (22 cases).  

• January saw the monthly rate decline 40% to 13 positive cases; February’s four employee cases represented a 69% decline from January’s monthly rate; and the three cases reported by employees in March marked a subsequent 25% decline. 

• The declining trend reversed in April when seven cases caused the monthly rate to rise 133% from the March level, but declined again by 57% in May, when three cases were reported.  

• Thus far, one case has been reported in June.  Also in June, the City learned that COVID-19 was among the causes of death of one recently deceased employee.

Data about COVID-19 cases among City employees, in the county, the state and the nation are presented at this online dashboard. Other City-related updates about the COVID-19 pandemic are assembled here.  

The City of Bloomington is committed to sharing information about how its operations and workforce are affected by this public health emergency, and will continue to provide weekly updates about confirmed cases among staff while protecting employees’ privacy.