City Reports Five New COVID-19 Employee Cases

Bloomington, Ind. – Five City workers have reported positive results of COVID-19 tests since the August 11 update, including one City Hall (City Hall) employee, one Department of Public Works (DPW) employee, one Bloomington Police Department (BPD) employee, and three Bloomington Transit (BT) employees.

Details of the cases are as follows: 

• One City Hall employee started experiencing symptoms on August 14 and received a positive COVID-19 test result on August 16. Close contacts have been notified.

• One DPW employee started experiencing symptoms on August 11 and received a positive COVID-19 test result on the same day. Close contacts have been notified.

• A BT employee started experiencing symptoms on August 12 and received a positive COVID-19 test result on August 16. There were no close contacts.

• A second BT employee started experiencing symptoms on August 11 and received a positive COVID-19 test result on August 12. There were no close contacts.

• A third BT employee started experiencing symptoms on August 12 and received a positive COVID-19 test result on August 13. There were no close contacts.

To date, 413 positive COVID-19 viral test results have been reported since the start of the pandemic by City workers, including those employed by the municipal corporations that operate the water utility (CBU), transit system (Bloomington Transit), and public housing (Bloomington Housing Authority). Additionally, COVID-19 was listed among the causes of death of one City worker.  

Data about COVID-19 cases among City employees, in the county, the state, and the nation are available at https://bton.in/SOHjE. Other City-related updates about the COVID-19 pandemic are available at bloomington.in.gov/covid19.  

City of Bloomington Utilities continues its weekly COVID-19 wastewater sampling program. While it is presently in the early stages of development, wastewater sampling has been proposed as a future “early warning” methodology. As of August 8, the most recent date for which data is available, sample concentrations were 7900 gene copies/100mL at the Dillman plant and 2100 gene copies/100mL at the Blucher Poole plant. Sampling data is available at https://bton.in/rcAnW.

The City of Bloomington is committed to sharing information about how its operations and workforce are affected by this public health emergency and will continue to provide weekly updates about confirmed cases among staff while protecting employees’ privacy.