DETROIT (WWJ) - Some City of Detroit employees are headed back to work next week, under the mayor's plan to reengage the city's economy.
"Today we're announcing we're bringing back our general services department," Mayor Mike Duggan said, at a news conference with union leaders Tuesday.
Duggan says about 200 furloughed workers, most of them assigned to grass cutting, will be the first back on the job — but not without precautions.
The mayor said each worker will be tested for COVID-19 before Monday.
"They're going to have to have evidence of a negative test in order to be able to start work. And then, every morning, every one of these employees will have their temperature checked before they're allowed to work," Duggan said. "This is how we stopped the spread of COVID-19 at the Detroit Police Department."
Anyone with a temperature above 100 degrees will not be allowed on job sites, the mayor said. Masks will also be required, and sanitizing of vehicles and work places will be a priority.
Duggan said the city intends to set an example.
"We're gonna cut the grass in the parks and the medians; we're gonna have our road workers back," Duggan said, during a Detroit Chamber of Commerce tele-town hall. "We'll show people what standards we use there."
"We're gonna start our construction projects the next week; we'll show people what the standards are there. And ultimately, in a week or two, we're going to start bringing people back to offices when they can't work from home," the mayor said. "If you can work just as well from home, you should continue to work from home."
Duggan struck an overall optimistic tone at the latest news briefing, as he said the TCF Center field hospital was expected to close sometime soon. Hospitals, he explained, have plenty of beds available for COVID-19 patients.
Duggan said, however, the situation in the city's nursing homes remains "troubling," with 214 resident deaths to date.
As of Tuesday, 8,823 people in Detroit have tested positive for the coronavirus and at least 987 have died in the city since the pandemic began.
