COVID in the workforce: Miami-Dade police, bus operators home sick as virus spreads

Miami-Dade’s transit system is again feeling some strain from COVID-19’s spread — this time without the emergency measures that increased the cleaning of buses and decreased the number of passengers aboard.

The county’s Department of Transportation and Public Works on Wednesday said 63 bus operators were home due to COVID and that a bus technician died from it Saturday. The technician was not named. The county’s transit union said a supervisor also recently died of the virus.

Miami-Dade police, paramedics and firefighters also are staying home due to COVID, with the absences putting a logistical strain on two of the county’s largest agencies.

“We have people out,” said Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. “That affects our ability to perform.”

Miami-Dade Police said Wednesday that 180 employees are out due to COVID, amounting to about 4% of the police department. Of those, 127 had tested positive and and the rest were awaiting test results.

The Fire and Rescue Department also reports about 4% of its workforce out with COVID, with 122 employees either testing positive or awaiting results.

With roughly 1,600 bus operators on staff, 63 county bus operators out due to COVID also matches the 4% share of the workforce reported by police and fire agencies.

Miami-Dade transit ended its COVID emergency measures in June. That included free fares to limit passenger proximity to operators, emergency cleaning contracts, and capacity caps that had buses picking up fewer than half their regular load of riders.

Those measures were in place during last summer’s COVID spike, when Miami-Dade transit reported at least 40 operators out with COVID and administrators said many more were home sick — likely because of COVID as well.

This COVID spread faces off against a population with a high reported vaccination rate — a central protection not available to passengers or transit workers last summer. It’s not known how many transit workers are vaccinated.

Earlier this month, Levine Cava announced new COVID vaccine requirements for some county employees. Those take effect this week and require regular COVID testing for employees who aren’t vaccinated.

The rules were designed to encourage more employees to get vaccinated, but they only apply to non-union county workers, which amounts to roughly 10% of a workforce topping 29,000 positions.

Levine Cava can’t impose new restrictions on the county’s unionized workforce, which includes most of the transit, police, fire and other departments. The mayor said she’s hoping to expand the vaccination restrictions soon through union negotiations.

“The message is: Vaccinate, stay home if you’re sick,” Levine Cava said.

Miami-Dade continues to post the highest vaccination rate in state reports, with 83% of residents 12 and over having received at least one dose of vaccine. Daily reporting by hospitals in the county also shows a COVID outbreak where patients with the virus occupy about 35% of the county’s nearly 5,000 hospital beds and roughly 40% of available ventilators.

Miami-Dade reported about 10 COVID deaths a day at the start of August countywide, and five or fewer in recent days. That’s better than when the virus was at its peak last summer, when the average was roughly 25 deaths per day.

Levine Cava said county hospitals estimate a plateau is near or already arrived in the latest COVID spike, and she’s hoping renewed interest in vaccination will be more of a shield heading into the fall. “People got religion,” she said. “Fear is a highly motivating factor.”

In late June, Miami-Dade canceled contracts with sanitation companies providing extra cleaning on buses and Metrorail, part of a broader ramp down of transit emergency measures as COVID cases waned and immunization increased. Miami-Dade also stopped blocking off seats and reducing capacity in the vehicles.

COVID measures in place now include plastic barriers between passengers and operators, UV light sanitation and air filtration systems already on buses and expanding soon to Metrorail trains.

Levine Cava said transit will focus on extra cleaning during the current COVID spike, with equipment purchases and staffing ramping up this month.

“We’re going to be heavily cleaning,” Levine Cava said. “If we did have a hiatus, we won’t have it anymore.”

This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 6:00 AM.