Throughout the pandemic, the City of High Point has shown that it takes even a single case of COVID-19 at one of its government workplaces very seriously.
On Friday, Sept. 25, the city demonstrated that caution again. After a city employee tested positive for COVID-19 at the Northpoint Customer Service branch office at 136 Northpoint Ave. in the building that also holds the High Point Parks and Recreation administrative operations, the city shut down the payment office.
Jeron Hollis, the director of communications and public engagement for the City of High Point, said on Friday evening that the payment center is where some customers pay their city water and electric bills. He said that city employees have other access points for the building so some operations will continue – but the Northpoint office where customers pay bills is now being sanitized for the protection of employees as well as the public.
All employees who were exposed have isolated themselves – something that caused a staffing shortage and forced the city to also shut down its drive-thru payment location at 309 E. Green Dr.
“We have an established protocol and we’re following that,” Hollis said.
Earlier in the pandemic, a worker on the transportation service tested positive and in that case as well, the city reacted quickly. It halted transportation operations for days while the vehicles were sanitized and other precautions were taken.
Hollis said the city is trying to be “proactive when it comes to battling the spread of the coronavirus.
High Point residents are being encouraged to pay their bills online using the city’s website. That’s the safest way to do anything these days of course – online, that is – however, the city’s payment location inside the City of High Point Municipal Building will remain open and continue with normal business hours.
According to High Point city officials, the Northpoint Customer Service Office has continually followed federal, state and local sanitation guidelines. The Northpoint payment office is expected to reopen Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020. The office’s hours will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The drive-thru window on Green Drive is also expected to reopen on Thursday.
I am older. Don’t mind wearing a mask indoors, or in a crowd, but not outdoors. All this stuff to me seems somewhat like “a whole lot of nuthin'”. Seniors and those with weak immune systems are at deathly risk, but I am not going to be a “bubble boy”.
Can’t we just look after each other, and get on with it?