Groups Representing Essential Workers Call for Widespread COVID-19 Testing Methods
A quarter of people who carry the novel coronavirus are asymptomatic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
With this unnerving statistic making the headlines, the National Safety Council and 50 other non-governmental organizations representing America's essential workers have collaborated on a letter addressed to United States' Vice President Mike Pence.
The letter urges government officials to implement widespread workplace access for COVID-19 once testing supplies are more readily available.
While the letter supports prioritizing testing frontline workers in healthcare and emergency services, it references the businesses and sectors there have been determined to be essential.
"Increased access to COVID-19 testing for our workforce will help flatten the curve by removing people with coronavirus from the workplace and better ensure the safety and health of employees who are maintaining operations during this pandemic," the organizations state.
Essential workers across all industries from trucking, agriculture, landscape and poultry production, to utilities and manufacturing are represented in the letter.
"A lack of easily accessible COVID-19 testing means that some of our employees may unknowingly be coming to work and spreading the disease to their co-workers and the public," the letter says.
"Employees engaged in critical infrastructure and essential business are required to be at a physical worksite in some proximity to other employees and/or customers," the organizations explain in the letter. "We have a responsibility to ensure that they can perform their work in a safe environment, and access to testing would help us do so."
