CATS Blue Line shifts to Sunday schedule while facing a COVID-related staffing shortage

The CATS Blue Line is shifting to a Sunday service schedule for the rest of the month while 12 employees quarantine for COVID-19 after they attended a private event on Saturday, officials said.

One employee has tested positive for coronavirus so far, but all event attendees are adhering to health protocols and quarantining for 14 days, CATS spokeswoman Juliann Sheldon said Tuesday night. The employees don’t work directly with customers, but they are “critical to the safe operation of the rail system,” Sheldon said in a news release.

The new schedule took effect Wednesday and goes through the end of December.

John Lewis, CEO of CATS, said he is “incredibly disappointed in the judgment of these employees.”

“Their actions will temporarily impact the levels of service we can provide to our community,” Lewis said in a statement. “I ask all CATS employees, riders, and community members to please take this virus seriously.”

Seven of the 12 employees had reported to work but were sent home after CATS learned about the positive case through contact tracing and “routine pandemic protocols,” Sheldon told the Observer Wednesday.

Since the start of the pandemic, 81 CATS employees have tested positive for COVID-19, Sheldon said. That translates into less than 6% of more than 1,300 employees.

The announcement comes as Mecklenburg County’s coronavirus conditions rapidly deteriorate, with new daily caseloads and hospitalizations skyrocketing in the aftermath of Thanksgiving gatherings.

In another major disruption, the Mecklenburg County Emergency Operations Center — home to a key group of government employees managing the local COVID-19 response — is closed until early January due to a string of coronavirus infections among staff.

Mecklenburg has logged 53,076 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported Wednesday morning. That’s a rate of 4,780 infections for every 100,000 residents. The local death toll reached 494 on Tuesday afternoon, Mecklenburg officials said.

For months, CATS has provided free masks to riders, who must wear a face covering under Gov. Roy Cooper’s executive order. Free masks are still available at the Charlotte Transportation Center, Sheldon said.

Earlier this fall, CATS announced it would install plexiglass seat barriers on buses as another coronavirus precaution. That’s in addition to regular cleaning protocols for CATS vehicles and facilities, including hospital-grade disinfectants for hard surfaces.

This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 6:52 PM.