NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The First Student bus company is working with the health department after it reported 27 COVID-19 cases of its staff including bus drivers, bus aides and administration.
The bus company announced on October 30, it had extended its shut down for two weeks due to COVID-19.
First Student Bus company released a statement regarding the number of cases and the steps they are taking to protect students and employees. in addition to daily bus disinfection and return-to-work policy, the company will also be implementing new cleanliness standards, disinfecting keys, and ongoing randomized COVID-19 testing.
New Haven Schools extended its remote learning back in October due to the city's rising positive COVID-19 cases. Students were originally supposed to return to in-person learning on November 9.
Read First Student's statement below:
"At First Student, there is nothing more important than the safety, health and well-being of our students and employees.
First Student is working in partnership with the health department to develop a reopening action plan. Most of the health department’s requested procedures, such as daily bus disinfection, return-to-work policy, and sick leave policies, are already in place. We are also instituting new cleanliness standards, ongoing randomized COVID testing, and disinfecting keys.
The employees who test positive are in quarantine and we are supporting the health department’s contact tracing efforts. We are also conducting widespread testing of our employees at a dedicated drive-through testing site. Additionally, we have reached out to all employees to reinforce appropriate safety, social distancing and cleanliness behaviors both at and outside of the workplace. We will continue to work with the health department, the school district and our employees to keep health and safety a top priority."