By Ashley Portero – Reporter, South Florida Business Journal
As the death toll from the coronavirus continues to grow, South Florida businesses should consider how they would prepare in the event of a local outbreak.
There have been more than 30,000 confirmed cases of the flu-like virus globally, causing at least 600 deaths in mainland China since it was identified in January. While a handful of infections have been confirmed in the U.S., so far the illness has been largely contained in China.
Although the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global public health emergency, that doesn't mean local businesses that import items from China should be concerned about contracting the virus through shipments originating from that country.
"It's almost impossible cargo could carry a live virus," said Dr. Aileen Marty, a professor at the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine at Florida International University. "As long as it's clean, it should be fine."
Marty, an infectious disease specialist, said a number of suspected coronavirus patients are currently being sequestered in Florida. But U.S. authorities have been quick to quarantine suspected and confirmed cases, severely reducing the likelihood of rapid person-to-person transmissions, she said.
Justus Reid, a partner with West Palm Beach-based Reid Burman Lebedeker Xenick, said businesses should have at least one person on staff tracking the latest updates on coronavirus from domestic and international health authorities. Employees experiencing flu symptoms, such as coughing and fever, should not report to work, he said.
"[An employer] could easily be liable if they require a sick employee to come into work who then transmitted the virus to others, especially with the publicity surrounding the outbreak," he said.
Individuals who do not report to work due to fear of coronavirus can be terminated by their employers, Reid said. Florida's employment laws do not include guidelines on how employers should respond in the event of a pandemic.
Coronavirus is transmitted through respiratory droplets via coughing and sneezing, said Marty. If those droplets contaminate a surface, other people who touch that surface could be infected. If unchecked, the virus could spread quickly in a workplace.
"The risk is an infected person could transmit the virus before they even start showing symptoms. That means someone who looks healthy could be contaminating an area," she said.
The current coronavirus is similar to previous strains of the virus found in animals like bats or rodents. SARS, for example, was a bat coronavirus that spread to humans through intermediary hosts, such as China’s raccoon dog. The problem with the current coronavirus, Marty said, is scientists do not know if there are any intermediary hosts transmitting the illness.
“If an animal carrying the virus was able to get on a boat or a plane and leave the country, then we could see sustained person-to-person transmissions despite efforts to control the virus at the human level,” she said.
The fatality rate for the current coronavirus is about 2% of confirmed cases. In contrast, seasonal flu has a fatality rate below 0.01% (1 death per every 10,000 cases).
Marty said businesses should encourage employees to practice thorough hand-washing with soap, to avoid spreading the virus.
But the best way to keep a workplace safe is to make sure employees with flu-like symptoms stay out of the office, Reid said.
“You don’t want heroes coming in coughing when they’re clearly symptomatic,” he said. “If they’re trying to come to work while sick, tell them to stay home.”
