DESPITE THE CORONAVIRUS disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic being a going concern in the country and continues to disrupt various affairs, the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) is still performing its duties, the group’s officials said.
Served as guests at Tuesday’s online Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum, SBP Executive Director Sonny Barrios and Director for Operations Butch Antonio said the past months with quarantine restrictions have made doing their job challenging but it has not stopped the local basketball federation from attending to various matters.
“We can say it has been a busy lockdown for the SBP,” Mr. Antonio said.
Among the concerns the SBP is attending to is making sure that stakeholders affected by the pandemic are taken care of.
Mr. Barrios shared that even before stakeholders asked for help, the federation already met and brainstormed on possible assistance it can give.
The SBP agreed to give P150,000 each for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, which federation officials there distributed to members, like referees and table officials. A maximum amount of P3,000 was given to members so as more people could benefit.
Mr. Barrios was happy to report that the response to the effort was positive.
The SBP officials also shared that training continues for their various stakeholders albeit done online as big gatherings are still prohibited under existing measures put up by the government to fight the spread of COVID-19.
Webinars involving game officials and coaches had been conducted and are set to happen, the SBP said.
The SBP also held a videoconference in May with other sports federations where they shared inputs on how sports can return.
Recently, the federation was busy rallying behind the Philippine esports team, “E-Gilas,” that competed in the inaugural FIBA Esports Open and swept all of its games against Indonesia to win the Southeast Asian conference.
Messrs. Barrios and Antonio said the basketball body is high on the potential of esports basketball for the country and that they will try to further incorporate the sport in their program.
3X3 OQT AND OTHER COMPETITIONS
Meanwhile, Mr. Antonio said they are continuously planning for competitions that the country will be participating in, including the FIBA 3×3 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in May next year, despite the uncertainty concerning COVID-19.
“We are planning for that (3×3 OQT). We have a steering committee for it. We will convene once there is already a firm and detailed plan for the resumption of practices from the government,” the SBP operations director said.
The same goes for Gilas Pilipinas, which is competing in the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers.
The SBP is currently monitoring the situation in relation to the tournament and is ready to adjust as needed.
The Philippines sports a 1-0 record in the qualifiers and is scheduled to play Korea and Thailand in Group A action in November.
Also at the PSA Forum, the SBP officials shared that the country’s preparations for the FIBA World Cup 2023, which the Philippines is hosting along with Japan and Indonesia, are unhampered by the current conditions with the pandemic.
“We are constantly in communication with FIBA and our counterparts in Japan and Indonesia. We have regular videoconferences with them, discussing various matters like financial models, marketing and the directions to take,” said Mr. Barrios.
He went on to say that among the early things they have agreed on is the event logo, which is now up for FIBA approval and they plan to unveil sometime in September.
“Times are tough but the SBP is working to keep basketball relevant. Our programs will continue with the safety of everyone, of course, in prime consideration,” said Mr. Antonio as he reiterated the federation’s commitment to the sport and its development. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
HAVING SEEN how men’s volleyball steadily picked up momentum in interest in the last few years, national players Marck Espejo and John Vic de Guzman said it is just unfortunate that such push of the sports was halted by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
But the two volleyball stars remain optimistic that men’s volleyball would soar anew, supported by the platforms already in place with leagues like the Spikers’ Turf.
Sidelined like most athletes because of the restrictions put up to fight against COVID-19, particularly that prohibiting the conduct of team sports, Messrs. Espejo and De Guzman said the current situation for them has been tough but they are trying to cope up the best way they can.
One of the things they miss is logging time on the volleyball court to train.
While they keep themselves busy by maintaining their shape by working out at home, time spent on the court is still different, they said.
“Of course there are still home workouts that we can do so as to condition our body but training inside the volleyball court is different, especially familiarizing the muscles during volleyball practices,” Mr. De Guzman shared during their recent guesting on Tiebreaker Vods’ 2OT podcast.
It is the same sentiment for Mr. Espejo, who also added missing bonding with his teammates during the forced break.
“I really miss being with my teammates and coaches, not only on the volleyball court but also outside of it. We are doing home workouts as our coaches have given us conditioning programs to follow but being on the court really has a different feel to it,” the decorated University Athletic Association of the Philippines player from Ateneo said.
The two players shared the court as members of the Philippine team that won silver in last year’s Southeast Asian Games, a showing they said they are very proud of, especially as it added further motor for Philippine men’s volleyball thrust to be appreciated more.
However, they were quick to rue how COVID-19 sidetracked that momentum.
“The atmosphere there (SEA Games) was great. It was like basketball which was the first time it happened in men’s volleyball. It was really a proud moment for the sport and the country,” said Mr. Espejo, whose team met Thailand in the finals of men’s volleyball in the SEA Games.
“It is just frustrating that after the SEA Games, COVID-19 came and we went into lockdown. Hopefully when we get back the support from fans will still be there,” he added.
In relation to sustaining support for men’s volleyball, the players shared that leagues like the Spikers’ Turf play a big role in it and that they expressed hope that such platforms be maintained and added on.
“Men’s volleyball was really given a chance in Spikers’ Turf and we’re very thankful for that. Through the league male players have something to look forward to after playing collegiate volleyball and with the help of Spikers’ Turf we can see the level of play has really improved,” said Mr. De Guzman, a star player during his National Collegiate Athletic Association days with the College of Saint Benilde.
“Also through Spikers’ Turf, opportunities for Filipino players to play abroad opened up which also shows that there is a future for one in men’s volleyball not only in basketball, which is the number one sport in the country,” Mr. Espejo, who had stints in leagues in Japan and Thailand, for his part, said.
As of this writing, it still remains to be seen when volleyball activities will be allowed to resume with COVID-19 still a going concern here, but nonetheless Messrs. Espejo and De Guzman said they are ready to plunge into action when given the go-ahead.
TORONTO — A revised system for calculating world rankings when the tennis season resumes in August following a five-month stoppage due to the COVID-19 pandemic was unveiled by the governing body of men’s tennis (ATP) on Monday.
The rankings, a determining factor in a players’ ability to enter events and receive seedings, traditionally operate on a “Best 18” results basis over 52 weeks but will now cover a 22-month period from March 2019 through December 2020.
International tennis ground to a halt in mid-March, with Wimbledon being cancelled and the French Open being moved to September, and rankings were frozen.
The men’s Tour will resume on Aug. 14 with the Citi Open, ATP 500 event in Washington, DC.
Among the key elements of the revised system, a player’s ranking will now be comprised of his “Best 18” results over the 22-month period. A player cannot count the same tournament twice in his breakdown.
The ATP also said tour-level tournament points added in 2020 that count in a player’s ranking breakdown will remain on a player’s ranking for 52 weeks, or until the event in question is played again in 2021, whichever comes first.
“The temporary changes to the rankings system have been made in consultation with the four Grand Slam tournaments and the ITF (International Tennis Federation),” the ATP said in a news release.
“Should the 2021 season be impacted by COVID-19, further adjustments to rankings will be considered.” — Reuters
OTSUKA-SOLAR Philippines Incorporated, the company behind sports drink Pocari Sweat in the country, continues to rally behind local sports stakeholders by providing them with its products to maintain proper health.
Partnered with the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and the Philippine National Anti-Doping Organization (PHI-NADO) in last year’s staging of the Southeast Asia Games here, Pocari Sweat has extended its support during this difficult of time of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
It has steadily been supplying athlete-frontliners and PSC skeletal workforce with boxes of Pocari Sweat ion drinks to keep them hydrated and healthy while on duty at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex and Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila which serve as quarantine facilities for COVID-19 patients.
Pocari Sweat is a health drink that contains a balance of ions (electrolytes) that resembles the natural fluid balance in the human body and easily replenishes the water and ions that your body needs. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
FERRARI is planning to speed up the introduction of upgrades to its under-performing Formula One car after a difficult season-opening race in Austria last Sunday.
The Italian team had aimed to bring new parts to the July 19 Hungarian Grand Prix but said on Monday it hoped to have some for next weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix at the same Austrian circuit.
“The SF1000 (car) didn’t measure up, even compared to expectations ahead of the event,” Ferrari said on its website (www.ferrari.com). “Because of this, development has already been going on at full pace for some time.
“This is in the hope of bringing forward to next weekend the introduction of the aerodynamic package scheduled for the Hungarian Grand Prix — or, at least, some of its components.”
Ferrari said having two back-to-back races at the same circuit allowed the upgrades to be checked more accurately.
Despite Charles Leclerc finishing second in Austria, the Monegasque was also lucky in a race with only 11 finishers and three safety car periods.
Teammate and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel managed only 10th after qualifying 11th with Ferrari, runner-up last year, more than a second off the pace of champion Mercedes.
“We know there’s lots of work to do. This is certainly not the grid position that a team like Ferrari should have and we have to respond immediately. It’s clear that we have to improve on all fronts,” said Ferrari CEO Louis Camilleri.
“The only solution is to react and I’m pleased by the immediate reaction and the work that (principal) Mattia (Binotto) and all his team are putting in at every level.
“This is not just to bring to the track today what was scheduled to be ready tomorrow, but also to speed up the program of development for the coming races.” — Reuters
Mookie Betts could have signed a $300-million extension last year. Credible reports had the Red Sox offering him the decade-long deal in the offseason, the latest in a string of attempts to keep him in the fold for the long term. For the best position player in Major League Baseball not named Mike Trout, however, the numbers were nowhere close to what he felt he deserved. And so he countered with $420 million over 12 years, figures that then compelled his employers to reject as untenable. Instead, they inked him to a single-season deal worth $27 million last February, and, as expected, promptly looked around for trade partners.
A month later, Betts found himself heading to the Dodgers along with former Cy Young Award recipient David Price and cash considerations, flipped for young talent to kick off a rebuild by the Red Sox. And not long after, the league, and the rest of the world, wound up being upended by the novel coronavirus pandemic. Considering the opportunities he thought awaited him and the realities now confronting him, not a few quarters have had reason to wonder if he’s filled with regret. No, he said. “Once I make a decision, I make a decision,” he argued in a press conference yesterday. “I’m not going back to question myself. I don’t worry about that. The market will be what the market is. We’ll just kind of cross that bridge when we get there.”
Significantly, Betts isn’t confident there will even be a 2020 campaign. That he’s highlighting the uncertainty of the situation early in “Summer Camp” speaks volumes of how he believes the short term will unwind. Make no mistake. He’s angling, and continuing to ready himself, for MLB’s truncated schedule. Officials have pegged July 24 as Opening Day and September 27 as the end of the 60-game regular season. “I’m definitely preparing the same way; I’m fully expecting to play.” Still, he said, “that doesn’t mean there aren’t doubts that kinda go on when the facts aren’t in front of you.”
Betts has cause to do a double take, to be sure. The Athletics, Astros, Cardinals, and Nationals have already experienced workout delays due to testing issues. And, in the absence of a bubble environment akin to the National Basketball Association’s, more hurdles are to be expected. All the same, it’s All Systems Go for the MLB; in the face of mounting financial losses, the need to generate any semblance of revenues is paramount. It knows the problems will keep coming, and hopes it will learn enough along the way to cope. As he noted, the season is “in someone’s control, and whoever’s control it’s in has to find a way to make it work.”
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
BEIJING reported zero new coronavirus cases for the first time in 26 days, a sign the resurgence that ignited fears of a second wave in China looks to have been brought under control for now.
The city of more than 20 million people appears to have quelled a flare-up that infected 335 people, with infections down from 36 a day at their peak in mid-June. Authorities took a different approach to the virus when it reappeared in China’s political and economic hub after nearly two months of no locally transmitted cases than they did in Wuhan, the central city where the pathogen first emerged.
Instead of resorting to a sudden across-the-board lockdown that risked reversing the gains made since China started reopening, Beijing deployed more targeted measures. While some — like confining whole neighborhoods to their homes — may be more difficult to replicate in western democracies, they could hold lessons for other countries as they grapple with the inevitable return of the virus given an effective vaccine is months, potentially even years, away.
The Beijing resurgence, which took root in a wholesale food market in the city’s southwestern district, injected fresh uncertainty into the global struggle against the virus, hitting as citizens were getting used to a semblance of normal life. It served as a warning to places that look to have nailed the pandemic: the virus is elusive and isn’t easily beaten.
The outbreak, which seeded small virus skirmishes in other parts of China, was contained in less than four weeks. This is how they did it:
MILLIONS TESTED
Hesitant to fully seal off Beijing like officials did in less economically important regions, the city relied on targeted testing at unprecedented speed.
Reminiscent of the mass operation conducted in Wuhan in May, when most of the population was tested for the virus in about two weeks, Beijing has tested more than 11 million people so far, according to Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Overall, China has the capacity to test 3.8 million samples nationwide every day, officials said June 24, likely one of the fastest speeds worldwide.
Such scale is achieved using a method known as batch testing, where multiple samples are assessed simultaneously with detailed follow-up if any trace of the virus is found. Even without this method, Beijing can test over 300,000 people a day, six times more than the city’s capacity in March, according to Beijing Health Commission official Zhang Hua.
During the Beijing outbreak, entire groups were tested whenever an infection was found in their midst, including all the vendors at several major wet markets. All workers at a PepsiCo, Inc. food factory where a case was diagnosed had to undergo testing, and every delivery courier in the city — over 100,000 — was also sampled in weeks.
TARGETED LOCKDOWNS
Rather than confining everyone in Beijing to their homes once the new outbreak emerged, authorities just locked down apartment blocks and housing compounds close to the epicenter. In these high-risk areas, only one member per household was allowed to leave to purchase necessities.
It’s an approach that other countries are also looking at, with authorities in the Australian city of Melbourne implementing localized lockdowns to quell a resurgence in cases there. Specific streets or neighborhoods would be told to stay home and practice social distancing, but the rest of the city would remain open. South Korea, too, has taken a targeted approach, shutting down businesses or schools where there have been outbreaks, but never imposing city-wide lockdowns.
Schools in Beijing were also closed again to limit commuting, while some entertainment venues were shuttered, too.
LESSONS FROM WUHAN
China appears to have drawn from the lessons of Wuhan’s devastating outbreak in January, when the virus was not well-understood by experts and the system unprepared for how contagious it is. Then, people swarming hospitals for help spread the virus to other patients and infected the environment.
This time in Beijing, residents were banned from entering hospitals unless they had tested negative for the virus, and makeshift test sites were set up in neighborhoods where cases were found to assist those showing symptoms.
Rather than seal off the city’s borders like in Wuhan — a move that caused widespread panic among residents, causing them to rush the city’s highways — China imposed quarantine requirements at destinations instead. People going from Beijing to some other provinces have to be isolated for two weeks in government-run facilities upon arrival, naturally discouraging travel. Carriers canceled flights, even though the airport remained open.
STILL CAUTIOUS
Despite what seems to be a relatively quick containment, the flare-up has shifted the contours of China’s fight against the virus. Prior to the Beijing outbreak, the nation appeared to be largely triumphant in its fight against a disease that continues to devastate the developing world, and China’s biggest rival, the US.
The cluster in the capital is believed to have started at the market, but its exact genesis and how it spread remains unknown.
After the virus was detected on a chopping board used for imported salmon at the market, a nationwide boycott of the seafood took place that affected exporting countries like Norway and Australia.
Experts say it’s more likely that the salmon was contaminated by an infected person, or by being in a dark, humid and low-temperature environment where the virus was present. China’s customs department tested over 47,000 samples of imported meat, seafood, vegetables and food and all were negative. Still, the country has suspended imports from some foreign meat plants, including a Tyson Foods, Inc. plant in the US where hundreds of employees tested positive for COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), a move that potentially undermines its trade deal with Washington.
Amid that uncertainty — and as cases continue to pop up in areas around Beijing — China’s strategy is to remain circumspect. Even as infections taper, officials say that they won’t ease the restrictions until Beijing has seen two weeks without any new cases. — Bloomberg
HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s national security law imposed by Beijing last week was not “doom and gloom” for the city, its leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday, adding it was untrue to say she was not privy to any of its details before they were announced.
The sweeping legislation punishes what China describes broadly as secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, with up to life in prison.
It came into force at the same time it was made public just before midnight last Tuesday, with police arresting about 10 people for related offences the next day.
Speaking at her regular weekly news conference, Ms. Lam said she knew some details of the legislation before it was made public, but she had not seen the complete draft. She said the law would restore Hong Kong’s status as one of the safest cities in the world after sometimes violent pro-democracy protests last year.
“Compared with the national security laws of other countries, it is a rather mild law. Its scope is not as broad as that in other countries and even China,” Ms. Lam said, without naming the countries.
The legislation has been criticized by nations such as Britain and the United States, and rights groups, for undermining freedoms guaranteed under the “one country, two systems” agreed as part of the former British colony’s return to Chinese rule in 1997, and for giving mainland security agencies an enforcement presence in Hong Kong for the first time.
Its final power of interpretation lies with authorities in mainland China, where human rights groups have reported arbitrary detentions and disappearances. China has been clamping down on dissent and tightening censorship.
Both Hong Kong and Chinese government officials have said the law was vital to plug gaping holes in national security defenses, exposed by the city’s failure to pass such laws by itself as required under its mini-constitution, the Basic Law.
Ms. Lam said cases involving the new mainland agency in Hong Kong will be “rare” and that national security was a “red line” that should not be crossed.
If reporters in Hong Kong could guarantee they would not breach the new law, she could guarantee they would be allowed to report freely in the city, Ms. Lam said.
Late on Monday, Hong Kong released additional details of the law, saying security forces had overriding authority to enter and search properties for evidence and stop people from leaving the city. — Reuters
ANY VACCINE developed to ward off the novel coronavirus would likely be limited in how long it would shield against infection, top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said Monday.
“You can assume that we’ll get protection at least to take us through this cycle,” Mr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an appearance on a live-streamed video conference hosted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“We’re still knee-deep in the first wave” of the pandemic, Mr. Fauci said. Health officials are assuming a shot would offer a degree of protection, though it’s likely “going to be finite.”
A shot to protect against COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) won’t work like the measles vaccine, which lasts throughout a person’s lifetime, Mr. Fauci said. “We may need a boost to continue the protection, but right now we don’t know how long it lasts.”
Mr. Fauci said he expects the American public will have an answer before the end of the year or by early 2021 as to whether one of the more than 140 experimental shots in development has proven safe and effective.
In the meantime, Mr. Fauci said public health measures such as wearing a mask, social distancing, and frequent hand-washing should be used as a vehicle to a safe re-opening. “It’s not an obstacle, it’s a pathway to do that. We can’t create this binary thing where it’s ‘us against them,’” he said.
NIH Director Francis Collins, who led the interview with Mr. Fauci, responded, saying: “Even this issue tends to get polarized, maybe even politicized. Imagine that!” — Bloomberg
IN INDONESIA, locals can soon fly from Jakarta to the beaches of Bali for a domestic vacation. Tokyo residents can escape the pandemic stress with a hike up Mount Fuji, and New Yorkers can head to the Hamptons on Long Island.
Residents of Singapore, a city-state smaller than New York City, have few such options, presenting a massive problem for its battered tourism industry. With borders closed to foreigners, hotels and tourist attractions need to count on ‘staycationers’ to plug the gap in an industry that brought in almost $20 billion in revenue last year. It’s a tall order.
“Unless we have a return to international business, the hotel industry is going to be decimated as up to 90% of our bookings come from international travelers,” said Michael Issenberg, chief executive officer of Accor SA’s Asia Pacific unit, the largest hotel operator in Singapore.
While tourism everywhere has been hammered by the pandemic, the gradual opening of some domestic travel has given a shot in the arm to airlines and hotels in places like Australia and Vietnam. Rosewood Hotel Group has seen occupancy rates as high as 70% at some of its China properties as leisure travel picks up, said CEO Sonia Cheng.
Singapore’s tourism sector faces a tougher challenge, as the hotels were just given a green light last week to request approval to welcome domestic tourists. Many locals like teacher Najeer Yusof prefer to save their money and wait for travel to resume in nearby hotspots like Thailand and Malaysia rather than spend it on a hotel down the street.
“There’s more to see and experience overseas at a cheaper cost,” said Mr. Yusof. There’s also the “awe factor — getting to see or experience something I won’t otherwise be able to in Singapore, like the mountains and national parks in Indonesia and activities like diving and surfing.”
Though the country of 5.7 million people has reopened its economy after a lockdown of more than two months, its borders are still largely closed. It recorded a historic low of just 750 foreign visitors in April, down from 1.6 million in the same month last year. May’s numbers weren’t much better, at 880.
“In the short-term, hotels, eateries and attractions can re-orientate to draw interest to staycations, attractions or food discounts,” said Selena Ling, head of treasury research and strategy at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. “However, our inherent small domestic market size implies it may not be a longer-term sustainable solution.”
Tourism has been an increasingly important industry for Singapore, helping to diversify the economy from its traditional strengths of finance, oil refining and shipping. Attractions including the Marina Bay Sands hotel and casino, the Universal Studios theme park and the Singapore Zoo have drawn tourists from around the world.
Last year, Singapore hosted a record 19.1 million visitors, while tourism receipts rose to S$27.7 billion ($19.8 billion), from S$26.9 billion the year before. Singapore’s tourism sector, which employs about 65,000 people, contributes about 4% to gross domestic product. The Singapore Tourism Board doesn’t track the share of local versus international tourism.
GATE’S CLOSED
The border closure means Singapore needs to persuade locals to spend more money at home. Even with overseas travel off limits, Singapore residents will still want to venture out, said Tourism Board CEO Keith Tan.
“They may therefore be open to take time off in their own city and rediscover all that Singapore has to offer,” he said in an e-mailed statement.
Singapore has set aside S$90 million for the tourism sector and a task force is developing domestic and international recovery plans to be shared soon, Mr. Tan added.
Hotels including the Shangri-la are also getting a small boost from the thousands of Singaporeans and expats who have been traveling abroad and are slowly being allowed back in. When they arrive, most are being forced to quarantine for 14 days in a hotel, at a cost of about S$2,000.
With occupancy running at just 15% for August, the iconic Raffles Singapore is offering a two-night special for about S$795, complete with a complimentary Singapore Sling, free breakfast, city tour and spa discounts.
Some tourist spots are also offering price cuts to attract residents who’ve been cooped up in their apartments for weeks. Sentosa Development Corp., which manages a resort island with attractions including Madame Tussauds and Universal Studios, has waived admission fees until the end of September, said Lynette Ang, the chief marketing officer.
Lo & Behold Group, which operates the Tanjong Beach Club just 15 minutes from the financial district, is launching a new concept called “Dine In Nature,” which includes curated gourmet picnic baskets. It hopes this “will fulfill a growing demand from local residents for polished, thoughtful dining experiences,” said Chief Operations Officer Andrew Ing.
For Singapore’s tourism industry, a full recovery isn’t likely before 2022, and largely depends on countries avoiding additional waves of the virus and the development of a vaccine, said Wong King Yin, a lecturer in marketing at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
“Although domestic travel can be a solution at the beginning during the recovery stage, the tourism industry cannot rely on staycations to survive,” she said. — Bloomberg
Employers are wrestling with workplace safety in the age of COVID-19. Dogged by issues of cost, access, logistics, and employee privacy, testing isn’t part of most back-to-work plans. Image via Reuters.
From nursing homes in New York and a landfill in Utah to Disney World and the Las Vegas Strip, employers are wrestling with workplace safety in the age of COVID-19 and making fraught calculations about how to safeguard both their businesses and their employees.
Mass testing, a critical tool to stem the virus’s spread, would appear an obvious solution.
But dogged by issues of cost—diagnostic tests start at around $100 each—access, logistics and employee privacy, tests aren’t part of most back-to-work plans. As health-care companies that work with employers in this capacity are fond of saying, there’s no silver bullet.
Another major deterrent is that COVID-19 tests only measure that point in time, notes Lauren Vela, senior director for the Pacific Business Group on Health, which represents large employers like Microsoft Corp. and Walmart Inc. If a worker is infected shortly after being tested, it wouldn’t show up but everyone would be falsely reassured by the negative result.
Testing is “not really available, feasible or easy, and it’s not a solution you can do for every employee, every day,” Ms. Vela said.
So instead employers are favoring lower-cost, easier-to-implement interventions like temperature checks and symptom screening while also stocking up on masks, hand sanitizer, and cleaning wipes. While those measures help, asymptomatic individuals could still transmit the virus.
Image via Reuters.
Healthcare startup Buoy Health has been working with employers on COVID workplace issues. Only a few are taking an on-site testing approach.
“The cost of the test at scale is pretty prohibitive,” Andrew Le, a physician and Buoy’s chief executive officer, said.
But at Walt Disney Co. theme parks, actors working the live shows are demanding screenings before they return.
Performers sing, dance, and hand things to each other, noted Kate Shindle, president of the Actors’ Equity Association, the union that represents cast members at Broadway shows and Disney’s Florida resorts.
“There’s a lot of people who can do their work when they’re wearing a mask and gloves. Our people can’t do that,” Ms. Shindle said in an interview. “It’s just very important to our membership, who otherwise is overwhelmingly eager to get back to work.”
In a June 24 letter to its unions in California, Disney said it doesn’t think testing is a good idea, citing a high rate of false negatives and concerns that it creates “a false sense of security,” among other factors. Instead, it’s focusing on physical distancing, wearing effective face coverings, hand washing and sanitization.
‘NOT IN CONTROL’
Intermountain Regional Landfill in Utah, located about an hour’s drive from Salt Lake City, has made a different calculation. Cases in the state have surged in recent weeks and an employee recently had to stay home for three days because of a potential exposure through a family member who ended up testing negative.
That was “not only cumbersome and a loss of productivity, but really frustrating to know we’re not in control of it,” said Chief Financial Officer Adam Campbell.
Intermountain processes over four million pounds of waste a day and operations are easily disrupted even if only a few workers got sick. In the worst-case scenario, should infection hit all 15 employees and force a total work suspension, the business would face estimated losses of about $20,000 a day.
So Intermountain decided to test its workforce. It’s working with Atlas ID, a software company that had focused on employment verification systems before the pandemic, to work out how often to test and in which scenarios. It’ll cost about $2,000 a round.
“We could be testing for years at a high level and never even touch just missing one day’s worth of having to divert our waste,” Rob Richards, the landfill’s president and general manager, said.
INSURANCE HELP?
At nursing homes and assisted living facilities, which an analysis by the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity found account for 45% of virus deaths in the US, testing employees is mandatory for many. But the bill quickly adds up.
Len Russ owns Bayberry Care Center in New Rochelle, New York. His roughly 100 employees were tested twice a week for five weeks, at a cost of $20,000 a week. The screening did identify at least six sick employees, but Mr. Russ is still waiting to see how to cover the $100,000 tab. The lab that processed the tests will try billing employees’ insurance, though Russ said he doesn’t expect them to cover repeat testing.
Keene Valley Neighborhood House, an assisted living facility in upstate New York, has had success billing insurance, according to executive director Richard Rothstein. Yet employers are ultimately likely to bear these costs themselves through higher premiums.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday that employers may use testing as part of a comprehensive approach to reducing the virus’s spread at work. But employers, many of whom are already facing massive losses from shutdowns, often find the cost doesn’t make sense. Antigen testing, which screens for active infections and provides rapid and cheap results, has promise but is only beginning to come to market.
Although antibody tests, which screen for past infections and are easier for labs to scale up, seemed like a solution, it isn’t clear what sort of immunity antibodies grant. And after the CDC said antibody tests shouldn’t be used in deciding to send people back to work, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued a statement telling employers they can’t require the tests. Diagnostic tests for current infections are permitted.
Antigen testing, which screens for active infections and provides rapid and cheap results, has promise but is only beginning to come to market. Image via Reuters.
South of Los Angeles, EB Design builds decorative interiors for hotels and high-end restaurants, a group that was “basically decimated” during shutdowns, owner Eric Beneker said. He decided to test his 20 employees biweekly to ensure their safety, but couldn’t find information or resources on how to do it.
The company ended up booking appointments through facilities set up by local governments. It’s been time-consuming, though, as there were few open slots and long turnaround times. And they had to mislead the sites to get in because individuals have to be symptomatic to get tested.
“Is it the honest thing to do?” Mr. Beneker said. “Probably not, but we don’t have any other choice, and we’re not given any other choice.”
In May, two employees tested positive and EB Design closed down. The company paid a private lab to re-test everyone. It cost about $3,000 total, around 10% of the company’s payroll. It turned out neither had COVID-19. Could the company field that kind of bill regularly? “Hell no,” Mr. Beneker said.
“The problem is we’re so far down the road here with reopening of the economy,” he said. “While we’re trying, and we’re doing our best, we’re not getting the tools” needed to help.
Logistical challenges abound—results often take days or over a week to come in, supplies continue to be limited—but privacy issues often weigh as heavily.
Suffolk Construction partners with Buoy Health on its workplace safety plan. A testing facility is available as needed, but the builder isn’t implementing mass screenings, executive vice-president Alex Hall said, citing privacy concerns and the limited usefulness of the results.
“We get it. There’s an element of Big Brother around this situation anyway,” Mr. Hall said. “We want to be mindful of how people are feeling.”
The battle is also playing out in Vegas, where cases have surged since casinos began reopening last month.
Managers, unions, and other business leaders created a program with a hospital to test workers at the convention center. But it isn’t mandatory, according to Bethany Khan, a spokesperson for the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which represents casino employees.
While Caesars Entertainment Corp. has made testing mandatory after a worker died from the virus in June, others haven’t. Ms. Khan said the union is pushing for regular testing and on Monday, it sued Harrah’s hotel, operated by Caesars, and MGM Resorts International’s Bellagio for not adequately protecting workers.
MGM said it’s working with health-care professionals to develop safety protocols, including mandatory testing for anyone with symptoms or exposure, as well as free ones for anyone who wants a test. “Nothing is more important to us than the safety of everyone inside of our properties,’’ the company said.
At a press conference last week, a bellman at The Signature at MGM Grand hotel spoke about falling ill in June.
“It was three months that we did social distancing, that we did lockdown in Las Vegas,” Sixto Zermeno said. “I go back to work, three days later I’m sick on the fourth day.” — Bloomberg
Major players in the cruise industry say their ships are safe even if there have been more than 3,000 COVID-19 cases and dozens of deaths associated with ships, according to the Cruise Lines International Association. Image via Reuters.
Two of the world’s largest cruise operators insist their ships are no more vulnerable to the spread of the new coronavirus than other public places.
The cruise industry has long pushed back at the idea that the close quarters on ships may be ripe conditions for the spread of disease. And major players continue to maintain that position, even though there have been more than 3,000 COVID-19 cases and dozens of deaths associated with ships, according to the Cruise Lines International Association. Top executives at Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. were asked Sunday to acknowledge that people are more likely to get coronavirus on a cruise ship than in the general public.
“No, I don’t believe” that, Frank Del Rio, the CEO of Norwegian, said in a Zoom interview, where he was joined by Richard Fain, head of Royal Caribbean. “I think done correctly a cruise ship—because it is a controlled environment—can be among the safest places on Earth.”
Mr. Fain took exception to the framing of the question. “One of the things about an intellectual inquiry is it should start with an open mind,” he said. “With all due respect, the question didn’t suggest you started with an open mind.”
The CEOs said they have formed a new partnership on health protocols to implement when they start sailing again. The group, the Healthy Sail Panel, is being led by former US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and former US Health Secretary Mike Leavitt.
The industry has wrestled for years with the issue of shipboard illnesses, including outbreaks of the norovirus winter vomiting bug. The cruise association, the lobbying arm for the industry, citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says guests are far more likely to get norovirus on land than on a ship. But the CDC cites cruise ships, along with schools, health-care facilities and restaurants, as one of the “common settings of norovirus outbreaks.”
On March 8, the US State Department said Americans, especially those with underlying conditions, should avoid cruise travel due to “increased risk of infection.” In a separate memo updated June 3, the CDC said there’s a “high risk” of COVID-19 spread on cruise ships because people spend time close together, interact with travelers from around the world, and are served by crew members who may bring infections aboard from other ships.
Separately, a study in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report in March found traces of the coronavirus lingered in cruise-ship cabins for as many as 17 days after passengers left.
The Miami Herald has identified 3,644 total cases associated with cruise ships, including 738 on Royal Caribbean ships and 30 with Norwegian. Carnival Corp., the industry leader by market share, has had 2,278 cases. A New York Times report, which used CDC data from a Freedom of Information Act request, said the numbers are far higher.
Even after the US State Department’s warning, cruise ships kept departing for the better part of a week until the industry announced it was suspending new sailings on March 13. Since shutting down, the major lines have all tapped financial markets to raise cash and tide them over. — Bloomberg
