Durham explains how the Spokane COVID-19 outbreak can happen
In less than a month, 28 employees tested positive for the virus, a company executive said.
SPOKANE COUNTY, Washington. – On Friday, a senior executive at Durhman Bus Services spoke about the latest outbreak that quarantined 57 employees.
Durham had been silent since KREM first reported a number of bus drivers quarantined for exposure to the coronavirus and said the outbreak was not severe. That all came to a standstill when 62-year-old bus attendant Dave Simpson signed COVID-19 and died less than a week later.
The company saw its first positive case in the week of February 8th.
“It just exploded the week of February 15th,” said Kevin Kilner, vice president of security. “It was all of these positive aspects that seemed to come in at once.”
In just one week, 17 employees tested positive for the virus, Kilner added.
Your security log has been reviewed in the past few weeks. Spokane Public Schools hires Durham to provide buses, drivers and escorts for their students.
In a February statement, SPS added that they were “aware that it is reported that Durham has not followed all health and safety protocols”.
In a statement in late February, the company claimed that each of the cases arose “outside of the workplace” without saying how they knew it.
RELATED: “We’re Shocked He’s Gone”: Durham bus attendant dies after testing positive for COVID-19
RELATED: 19 Durham employees, including school bus drivers, in Spokane have had COVID-19
When asked if he could understand how doubtful the parents were that each and every case was not work-related, he said yes.
“Absolutely, and I think our actions show that we were also suspicious,” he added. “The information we reported back then was the information we had.”
Kilner said it turned out it wasn’t right that all cases had originated outside of the workplace.
“We looked at the physical layout of this particular location and made a few minor changes to tweak it a bit further,” he said. “There were a few ways they were navigating a building that might be a problem, so we eliminated that.”
According to Kilner, her employees were able to contact each other through public areas at the school bus hub. In addition, he said the company’s employees need to strengthen their masking guidelines and social distancing their employees and disinfecting their vehicles.
“Part of our research has resulted in, or resulted in, some changes and clarifications that we can provide specifically for mask wearing,” he said. “We also spent some time reminding our employees of our expectations for wearing masks, social distancing, and disinfecting vehicles.”
Currently, 24 bus drivers are either unemployed due to positive tests or have been exposed and are in quarantine. Parents still say they don’t know if their children have come into contact with someone who has tested positive.
“When we talk about tracing contract contacts, I know everyone understands how difficult it can be, right?” he said. “We counted down all the different locations that employees might have spent their own time in and tracked all of that.”
The Spokane Regional Health District said they run Durham, but the company is doing contact tracing in-house. In a statement to KREM this morning, the health district said its staff are providing traceability guidance and assistance to control the current outbreak, but they are not responsible for it. Instead, a bus company tries to reach almost 60 employees.
“I think part of the problem is the limitations on the data that our people provide,” said Kilner.
Another problem could be that a company is managing the management of an outbreak when it is not a health group.
“If not, we’ll fill that void and make sure the health department is in place,” he said. “We accept any help from any agency that specializes in where we don’t.”
In the meantime, Spokane Public Schools urge parents or community members to contact us if they have any concerns about safety protocols. “We want families to know they are contacting us if they see our bus drivers or someone in our public school system not following health and safety protocols,” Sandra Jarrard said in February. “We want to make sure that we fix this situation as soon as possible because we want families to feel safe in our schools.”
“Employees who we feel are not compliant will be disciplined,” added Kilner.
With new protocols for members of the Durham team, Kilner hopes to contain the rapid spread of the virus. He assured that he would contact both the school district and the health district on Monday to discuss the contact tracing and notify parents of these security changes.
“Our heart is running out [the Spokane community] and we take it very seriously, “he said.” We will continue our efforts to make sure this continues in the right direction. “
Kilner added that he knows the company needs to work on clearer and more accurate communication so that this doesn’t happen again.
I am fortunate to work for a station that promotes and supports investigations.
TODAY – I sat down with Durham’s vice president of security for the company’s first interview since nearly 30 team members signed COVID-19. You don’t want to miss this exclusive one.
ONLY ON @ KREM2 AT 6 pic.twitter.com/GphiUVfd3U
– Morgan Trau (@MorganTrau) March 6, 2021