Wealden District Council office temporarily closes after staff member tests positive for Covid-19

The council confirmed the positive test was brought to their attention on Tuesday (November 10).

As a precaution, it said it took the decision to temporarily close its office in Vicarage Lane, Hailsham.

A spokesman said: “Following advice from our Head of Environmental Health, and in accordance with Government guidance, we took all the necessary steps to contain further spread of the virus. This included notifying those individuals who may have had contact with the affected employee and required that they self-isolate for the required number of days as a precautionary measure.

“While the arrangements we have in place mean that the risk of transmission was extremely low, we nonetheless took the decision to temporarily close the office, as unfortunately, some of those requiring to self-isolate included members of the caretaking and cleaning team who are critical to keeping our offices covid-secure.

“Provisions will be in place for Monday, November 16, so that we can reopen the building to our staff.”

The spokesman said since the start of the pandemic, the council has introduced a number of strict measures to protect its staff and contractors while at work.

These include temperature checks, hand sanitisation and scanning of the NHS Covid-19 app upon arrival to the building, an increased daily deep cleaning regime, and limiting the number of staff who make visits to the office.

And as a further precaution, those staff who do visit the office are required to social distance within the office and wear a face covering in all communal areas of the building, it said.

The spokesman added: “As you would expect, we also have a number of safeguards in place to ensure the safety of our staff, our residents and local business where it is necessary to make site visits.

“We are confident that the current safety measures in place and ensuring we follow Government guidance have helped us to contain the spread of the virus.

“We would also like to take this opportunity to reassure our residents, that we do not expect the running of our services to be affected.

“The majority of our staff have been working from home for a number of months now, and we are very much operating business as usual.”