Mayor Email - November 18
From: Mayor <Mayor@cityofmadison.com>
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2022 11:24 AM
To: All Email Users <AllEmailUsers@cityofmadison.com>
Subject: EPL Update and Respiratory Season Guidance
Dear Team City -
COVID-19 Community Level and Respiratory Season
Respiratory virus season has arrived and data shows it is ramping up earlier than usual. While Dane County’s COVID-19 community level is currently “low”, other bugs like RSV and the flu are spreading in our communities. Staying up to date on your COVID-19 and flu vaccinations, including your updated bivalent boosters, is one way to help make sure you stay healthy. With the holidays around the corner, don’t forget about the basics:
· Stay home and get tested if you’re sick
· Follow the latest guidance if you’re exposed to COVID-19
· Wash hands regularly
· Cover your cough
· Wear a mask when in crowded areas like indoor public transportation
Starting today, every Wisconsin household can also request one free COVID-19 rapid test kit each month. Each test kit contains five tests. Order your kit at www.sayyescovidhometest.org.
Emergency Paid Leave Update
Based on our current community level for COVID-19 at low status, HR is making the following changes to our Emergency Paid Leave Policies:
1. We are allowing the carryover of 2022 Emergency Paid Leave into 2023. If you have not exhausted all of your EPL, it will roll over automatically into next year and can be used until December of 2023.
2. While EPL can be used to obtain boosters or to recover in case you are unable to work due to the side-effects of a booster, employees are limited to the use of 24 working hours of EPL use to recover from a booster. If additional leave is needed, employees will be required to use other accrued leave like sick leave.
3. Supervisors should continue to grant employees up to 30 minutes off of work to get their booster without using accrued time, through December 31st, 2022. Beginning January 1st, employees will need to use EPL or other accrued leave if they need to be off in order to get their booster.
As a reminder, EPL is intended to support employees through the COVID-19 outbreak. EPL may only be used for the following purposes:
· An employee or their immediate family member(s) has a COVID‐19 diagnosis or is in quarantine or isolation due to COVID‐19.
· An employee or their immediate family member(s) needs to obtain a COVID‐19 vaccination, including boosters, and to recover from the effects of a COVID-19 vaccine.
· An employee needs to care for their child or another individual who cannot care for themselves due to the closure of their school, childcare facility, or another care program due to COVID‐19.
· Either a positive at-home test or a positive PCR test is needed to access EPL.
More information on our policies related to COVID-19 are located on our COVID-19 Information page.
New Sustainability and Resilience Website Live
Sustainability touches everything we do and now we’re making it even easier to keep up with all that we do with our new sustainability and resilience webpage. The site describes our goals, programs, partnerships, and policies.
A Time to be Thankful
As usual, staff have stepped up this year for both the expected and of course the unexpected. For that, I want to say thank you. Thank you to the Clerk’s office for yet another secure and efficient election day, as well as the staff who supported them and those who chose to volunteer. I really saw the community appreciate your efforts. A thank you to those giving to the Combined Campaign. Your generosity is boundless. A thank you for those who have helped us welcome thousands of new residents through the Town of Madison attachment. You’ve ushered in a project decades in the making. And a thank you is owed to staff who have led the way by welcoming back events to our community, by tackling never before seen storms, by launching new programs, supporting residents, innovating change, and all around making this City a beautiful, welcoming, and safe place to call home. Truly, that is all of you, so thank you Team City.
Please share this with employees who do not regularly check email.
Be well,
Mayor Satya
