As the Covid-19 outbreak seems to be intensifying in Westchester, the county government is being proactive and planning to trim in-person employee activities beginning Nov. 23.
During a news conference called by County Executive George Latimer at the County Office Building in White Plains this afternoon, Deputy County Executive Ken Jenkins announced that the county would limit the number of people engaged in in-person work to 25% of the normal workforce size.
There may be some situations where it is not possible to reduce the number of employees required to work in-person, such as at a sewage treatment plant or the county jail, Jenkins noted.
Jenkins has been working with Operations Director Joan McDonald and other staff on actions the county can take to stay ahead of what appears to be a new wave in the outbreak. He announced that also effective Nov. 23, all county board and commissions would resort to virtual meetings.
Latimer expressed concern about the recent dramatic rise in Covid statistics in the county. He reported that within the last two weeks, the number of active cases has doubled, from 1,552 to 3,515. More significant, while over a period of two months there were 11 deaths from Covid-19 recorded in Westchester, in the past two weeks 17 people have died from the virus.
“The ability to be completely remote is not possible as it would be if we were a corporation providing a product or service and we had executive or administrative offices providing services which could be remote,” Latimer said.
He noted that the county employs approximately 4,500 people and the effort will be to reduce the number of people who come to a work station and interact with other people.
“We have no authority as a county government to instruct other businesses to do the same but we think the time is now for all businesses, particularly those that have office-related administrative-related functions to take voluntary steps to reduce the in-person workforce, to reduce the number of people that are out in the community and potentially getting exposed to the virus,” Latimer said.
State figures show that as of Sunday, Westchester had a 4.6% positive testing rate for Covid-19, compared with 1.53% statewide. Since the pandemic began, there have been 1,629 deaths from the virus in Westchester, with 1,490 of those who died being Westchester residents. There have been a total of 44,576 people who tested positive for the virus in Westchester.
The village of Port Chester has been declared to be in an orange zone, where the number of infections is higher than surrounding areas, mandating specific steps for containment including: capping attendance at houses of worship to the lesser of 33% of maximum capacity or 25 people; limiting mass gatherings to no more than 10 people regardless of whether they”™re inside or outside; closing gyms, fitness centers, barber shops, hair salons and other personal care services; banning indoor dining; closing schools for in-person classes.
In Mount Vernon, a stay at home order went into effect today with residents advised to stay indoors unless traveling for work, school or essential needs.
When asked by the Business Journal whether he expected Westchester businesses to follow the county”™s lead, Latimer said, “It depends on the business. If you are in an administrative office context”¦those corporations use their skillset, use their technology, to work remotely. It”™s not shut your business down. It”™s have your people work remotely.”
He said it”™s up to each business to look at their operation and then compare it with the county.
“The county has an HR function; we have an HR function. We have a finance department. We have a law department. Can those functions work remotely for a major corporation, small business, large business? I would expect that more than not they can work remotely,” Latimer said. “We can”™t mandate this. We can”™t tell them ‘You must do this by law.”™ The governor might do that yet. We”™re trying to prevent that from happening. We”™re trying to prevent the shutdown of the society.”
When asked by the Business Journal, Latimer said that he has doubts additional financial aid for local government will be forthcoming anytime soon from the federal government.
“Those of us in local government are on our own at this stage of the game,” Latimer said. He said that having some flexibility in the use of Covid funding, the essentially steady property tax base and cutting the workforce by 5% have helped with stabilizing the county”™s budget.
“The state still has a significant budget gap and we don”™t know if the state is going to make decisions that will affect the county after we close our budget but there needs to be a federal government response,” Latimer said. “It comes down to a simple reality: Are we in this together or are we in it alone?”
