NCSS ANNOUNCES 124 LAYOFFS CAUSED BY CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK
By Gregory J. Lamoureux
County Courier
ST. ALBANS: The toll that the coronavirus is taking is growing in Franklin County as layoffs at Northwestern Counseling and Support Services were announced Saturday morning.
According to NCSS Director, Joe Halko, most of the layoffs were related to school-based staff, as well as a few community-based support staff.
The news of the layoffs comes as the State of Vermont Health Department says the known COVID-19 cases statewide have grown to 211, an increase of 28 cases from yesterday.
Also increasing is how many cases there are in Franklin County- now 7. That’s an increase from a week ago when the first two cases were announced in the county, both of which were being treated in the ICU at Northwestern Medical Center.
“The majority of NCSS staff continues to provide much needed services in a variety of creative and alternative ways. In an attempt to maximize care, we have reassigned much staff to other programs that need coverage during these trying times,” CEO of NCSS Todd Bauman wrote in a statement.
The non-profit hopes to rehire their laid-off employees sometime in April, after the majority of the crisis has come and gone, according to a statement by Halko.
“We are all living firsthand through a series of challenging events. We have put a lot of thought into the actions we’ve taken; it’s a delicate balance between operating and taking care of staff. We have made exceptions to many policies, one of them being the decision to continue people’s health insurance without collecting their bi-weekly share,” said Stacey Remillard, Director of Human Resources.
As the virus spreads throughout the community, the word is beginning to spread of cases that include workers from retail or manufacturing facilities, which is beginning to make people ask the question, ‘”Why are these businesses not shut down?”
The simple answer is that thought is when the virus is detected, it has already been spreading in that subject for 10-14 days. Closing down a manufacturing facility 10-14 days after the infected person picked it up does little to stop the spread of the virus.
Those who have been in close contact with the person who tested positive will be contacted by health officials and the locations that the person has known to be in will be sterilized.
In the case of one Franklin County business that manufactures food, the facility was sterilized, as it normally is, and workers in direct contact with the person infected were notified.
What people have to keep in mind is that Governor Phil Scott’s order to “Stay Home, Stay Safe” is what will keep themselves and their family safe. They need to assume that everyone they come in contact with has the virus. People need to assume that they, themselves, have the virus and could be spreading it to others.
The County Courier will continue to share information as we know it, and for the safety of everyone in our community, please take every precaution you can to prevent further spread.
