City Reports Five New COVID-19 Employee Cases

Bloomington, Ind. – Five City workers have reported positive results of COVID-19 tests since the December 15 update, including one Department of Public Works (DPW) employee, one Bloomington Police Department (BPD) employee, and three City Hall employees.

Details of the case are as follows: 

• One DPW employee started experiencing symptoms on December 19 and received a positive COVID-19 test result on December 21. There were no close contacts.

• One BPD employee started experiencing symptoms on December 18 and received a positive COVID-19 test result on December 19. Close contacts have or are being contacted.

• One City Hall employee started experiencing symptoms on December 17 and received a positive COVID-19 test result on the same day. Close contacts have or are being contacted.

• A second City Hall employee started experiencing symptoms on December 18 and received a positive COVID-19 test result on the same day. There were no close contacts.

• A third City Hall employee started experiencing symptoms on December 19 and received a positive COVID-19 test result on December 20. Close contacts have or are being contacted.

To date, 502 positive COVID-19 viral test results have been reported since the start of the pandemic by City workers, including those employed by the municipal corporations that operate the water utility (CBU), transit system (Bloomington Transit), and public housing (Bloomington Housing Authority). Additionally, COVID-19 was listed among the causes of death of one City worker.  

Data about COVID-19 cases among City employees, in the county, the state, and the nation are available at https://bton.in/SOHjE. Other City-related updates about the COVID-19 pandemic are available at bloomington.in.gov/covid19.  

City of Bloomington Utilities continues its weekly COVID-19 wastewater sampling program. While it is presently in the early stages of development, wastewater sampling has been proposed as a future “early warning” methodology. As of December 5, the most recent date for which data is available, sample concentrations were 3555 gene copies/100mL at the Dillman plant and 886 gene copies/100mL at the Blucher Poole plant. Sampling data is available at https://bton.in/rcAnW.

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.

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