RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Sev­en staff mem­bers of First Cit­i­zens’ San Fer­nan­do branch suf­fered nose-bleeds, short­ness of breath, wheez­ing, nau­sea, throat tight­ness, body pains and vom­it­ing on Thurs­day, af­ter they came in­to con­tact with bio-fog­ging chem­i­cals a day af­ter an­oth­er work­er test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19.

Ques­tions are now be­ing asked about why the work­ers and cus­tomers were al­lowed in­to the build­ing while the bio-fog­ging was tak­ing place.

A source said around 3 pm on Wednes­day, in­for­ma­tion sur­faced that a staff mem­ber had test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19.

A sani­ti­sa­tion com­pa­ny was called in to bio-fog the work­space be­tween 6.30 am to 7.30 am on Thurs­day.

Con­cerns were raised by staffers about whether the build­ing would be safe for oc­cu­pa­tion and the work­ers were re­port­ed­ly told it was. They were ad­vised they should re­port to du­ty as usu­al at 7.45 am the next day. Over 50 work­ers usu­al­ly re­port for work at that time.

How­ev­er, on Thurs­day when the staffers came in, the bio-fog­ging crew was busy sani­tis­ing the teller area, as well as the vaults.

Staffers were told to en­ter through the base­ment lo­cat­ed at Pen­i­tence Street. The bio-fog­ging crew wore res­pi­ra­to­ry masks and haz­mat suits. They then left the vault and went to sani­tise the base­ment.

Min­utes lat­er, tellers were told to go to the vault to get their dai­ly cash. When the bank was opened prompt­ly at 8 am, cus­tomers were obliv­i­ous that bio-fog­ging was tak­ing place.

Short­ly af­ter, a su­per­vi­sor at the bank fell ill and be­gan ex­pe­ri­enc­ing breath­ing prob­lems.

“More work­ers be­gan com­plain­ing and had trou­ble breath­ing, com­plained of headaches, chest pains, nau­sea, feel­ing weak and dizzy. All that hap­pened. The su­per­vi­sor went in an am­bu­lance, she could not breathe. Sev­en oth­ers fell ill, the tellers and tele­phone op­er­a­tor, yet the bank stayed open,” the source added.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that the work­ers were tak­en to San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, but af­ter be­ing told they would have to wait at the COVID test­ing area, where oth­er COVID-19-pos­i­tive cas­es were be­ing checked, the work­ers de­cid­ed to go to Sur­gi-Med Clin­ic in San Fer­nan­do. They were mon­i­tored their vi­tals checked and they were giv­en chest X-rays and ECGs but no COVID tests were done. 

The work­ers were dis­charged and giv­en med­i­cine but the source said some of them had to go back for in­tra­venous liq­uids overnight.

When Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed a se­nior of­fi­cial at the bank yes­ter­day, he de­nied he gave clear­ance to the work­ers and cus­tomers to en­ter the bank while bio-fog­ging was be­ing con­duct­ed. He de­clined fur­ther com­ment and di­rect­ed ques­tions to the head of FCB’s Brand and Mar­ket­ing Gillian Ben­jamin.

How­ev­er, calls and mes­sages to Ben­jamin went unan­swered.