8 firefighters in Charlotte-area department test positive for COVID-19, county says
Only two of eight Huntersville firefighters confirmed to have COVID-19 were vaccinated against the disease, and all shared living quarters and ate meals together, Mecklenburg County Health Director Gibbie Harris said Thursday.
One of the firefighters remained hospitalized, Harris said in an update sent to The Charlotte Observer at 5:20 p.m.. She did not provide the firefighter’s condition.
“Transmission appears to be from shared quarters in the firehouse,” Harris said in the statement. “The employees sleep in barrack style quarters and eat meals together for a 24 hr shift.”
Earlier Thursday, Harris said nine Huntersville firefighters tested positive for COVID-19, although the county was awaiting lab confirmation of the test results at the time.
Four firefighters who came in close contact with them were quarantined, Huntersville Fire Department spokesman Bill Suthard told the Observer this week. Only three firefighters remained quarantined Thursday evening, Harris said.
The firefighters who tested positive had no to mild symptoms, Suthard told the Observer on Tuesday, and none at the time were hospitalized.
A Mecklenburg County deputy fire marshal on Wednesday notified communicable disease staff with the county health department about the nine positive results, Harris said earlier Thursday.
At the time, she said in an email: “We have no lab confirmation of the nine positives in the State system at this time. Staff have requested for more specific information from the Deputy Fire Marshall and are reaching out again this morning for that information.”
Firefighters in close contact with any firefighter who tests positive is quarantined for three to five days, per Mecklenburg County Health Department guidelines, Suthard said.
No fire department operations have been affected due to the number of positive test results in the 120-member department, Suthard said.
Huntersville firefighters are all part time and hold full-time jobs elsewhere, including on the Charlotte, East Lincoln and Concord fire departments, he said. Harris on Thursday said she had no COVID information regarding fire departments other than Huntersville’s.
“Employees have been encouraged to get vaccinated,” Harris said in the statement, referring to the firefighters. “They all wear PPE (personal protection equipment) to public calls.”
COVID and first responders
Earlier this week, nearly 100 COVID cases were reported at the Mecklenburg County Jail, including 34 Sheriff’s Office workers.
Just over half of the Sheriff’s Office’s more than 1,000 sworn officers and civilian employees have been vaccinated, spokeswoman Janet Parker told the Observer on Wednesday.
As of Aug. 16, about 375 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police employees have tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, a department spokesman told the Observer but declined to provide more recent figures, including vaccination rates.
About 60% of CMPD’s roughly 2,300 personnel had been vaccinated in May, the Observer previously reported.
CMPD hasn’t made the vaccine mandatory, but employees have been encouraged to receive it, the department said. The City of Charlotte required all employees to register their vaccination status information by Tuesday.
A Charlotte Fire Department spokesman, in an email to the Observer on Thursday, said it’s had “our share of employees affected by COVID,” but also declined to provide more details.
“This has not affected our responses,” fire Capt. Jackie Gilmore said.
Seven Medic employees are currently in isolation, Mecklenburg EMS told the Observer on Wednesday. Of Medic’s 566 employees, about 81.5% have at least one COVID-19 vaccination and more than 78% are fully vaccinated, the agency said.
Protocols followed, HFD says
Huntersville Fire Department follows strict COVID-19 protocols, Suthard told the Observer. A firefighter who doesn’t feel well or begins to exhibit COVID-19 symptoms must immediately notify a supervisor. The department immediately contacts the Mecklenburg County Health Department to have the firefighter undergo rapid COVID-19 testing.
Any firefighter who spent 10 or 15 minutes within 6 feet of a firefighter who tested positive is immediately quarantined.
And department fire engines are sanitized multiple times a day, according to Suthard.
Staff writer Michael Gordon contributed to this story.
This story was originally published August 26, 2021 at 3:30 PM.