TUESDAY, JULY 28 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU A
BY ERIC YODERAbout 4,0 00 federal employees
are seeking disability compensa-
tion on grounds that they con-
tracted the novel coronavirus at
work, while survivors of 6 0 de-
ceased employees are seeking
death benefits for the same rea-
son.
The total number of claims is
expected to increase to 6,
within weeks, according to a re-
port that amounts to one of the
first accountings of the pandem-
ic’s impact on the health of the
federal workforce.
The report by the L abor Depart-
ment’s inspector general assessed
coronavirus-related trends in
workers’ compensation programs
including the Federal Employees’
Compensation Act, which covers
the 2 .1 million employees o f execu-
tive branch departments and
agencies plus the 630,0 00 employ-
ees of the semi-independent U. S.
Postal Service.
Last year, the FECA program
paid some $ 3 billion in b enefits t o
more than 200,000 p eople, mainly
to compensate for lost wages of
employees unable to work — tem-
porarily or permanently — be-
cause of a work-related injury or
illness. It a lso p ays for medical a nd
rehabilitation services f or them as
well a s death benefits t o survivors.
The report said that soon after
the pandemic was declared in
March, the FECA program took
steps to prepare for virus-related
claims, including to designate oc-
cupations such as law enforce-
ment, first responders, and front-
line medical and public health
personnel as at the highest risk of
contracting t he virus at w ork.
For those occupations, the pro-
gram “will accept that the expo-
sure to COVID-19 was proximately
caused by the nature of the em-
ployment and will only require
medical evidence that establishes
a diagnosis of COVID-19, such a s a
positive COVID-19 test result,” it
said. Those in other positions
must show the disease was em-
ployment-related, as with any oth-
er type o f injury o r illness claim.
Employees of three depart-
ments w ith h igh concentrations ofjobs deemed to carry the highest
risk of exposure — Homeland Se-
curity, J ustice and V eterans A ffairs
— accounted for most of the 4,0 11
claims filed t hrough T hursday.
Of those, 1,623 had been grant-
ed, fewer than s even were denied,
25 were withdrawn, and the rest
were waiting to be adjudicated —
including a ll of the d eath claims —
according to data provided by the
Labor Department that is more
current than that in the inspectorgeneral report.
The government does not keep
a central count of how many feder-
al employees have remained at
their regular workplaces through
the pandemic vs. those working
remotely or on paid leave.
However, the number of those
in the types of positions the FECA
program deems high risk would
be in the hundreds of thousands,
even excluding the Postal Service,
where relatively few jobs lend
themselves to telework.Nor is there a central count of
the numbers of infections and
deaths among federal employees.
However, reports from just some
of the l argest agencies s how n early
19, 00 0 infections and nearly 100
deaths, with both figures continu-
ing to rise.
As of Friday, the largest, the
Defense Department, reported
5,096 total infections among its
roughly 750,000 civilian employ-
ees dating to March, of whom 257were currently hospitalized and
1,8 41 recovered, with 32 deaths.
Separately, the department re-
ported nearly 24,00 0 total cases
and three deaths among uni-
formed military personnel.
The second-largest agency, Vet-
erans Affairs, with some 380,00 0
employees, reported 452 active
cases among its employees and
2,8 96 convalescent cases. Veter-
ans A ffairs r eported 40 deaths.
Several of the biggest subagen-
cies of the third-largest depart-ment, Homeland Security, report
data individually: Customs and
Border Protection had a total of
1,5 90 cases among its 60, 000 em-
ployees and eight deaths; and the
64, 000 -employee Transportation
Security Administration had 1,
cases a nd six deaths.
The Bureau of Prisons, part of
the Justice Department, reports
397 current cases among its
36,000 employees, 648 recovered
employees and one death. The
Postal Service reports 6,190 infec-
tions but d oes not count deaths.
The increase in w orkplace com-
pensation claims related to the
virus follows months o f controver-
sies over the adequacy of protec-
tions that f ederal agencies provide
their employees on the front lines
— as well pay and benefit issues.
For example, the chairman of the
House Homeland Security Com-
mittee recently said that at DHS,
“the number of employees who
currently have the virus is the
highest it has been since reporting
began in March. The number of
employees who are in quarantine
or self-isolating has similarly con-
tinued to rise.”
That i ncluded increases in posi-
tive tests in a two-week period of
more than 50 percent at Customsand Border Protection and more
than 4 0 percent at t he Tr ansporta-
tion Security Administration,
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.)
said in a letter urging greater pro-
tections f or employees.
Similar concerns have extend-
ed to the growing recalls of em-
ployees from telework or leave
even as infections and deaths are
rising nationally and are spiking
in s ome areas.
At an agency that has been
prominent in recalling employees,
the Internal Revenue Service,
“Employees remain a nxious about
the cleanliness of their workplace,
the enforcement of social distanc-
ing rules, mask use, the health of
their co-workers, hygiene s upplies
and timely notice when a col-
league tests positive,” said Tony
Reardon, president of the Nation-
al Tr easury Employees Union,
which represents most agency e m-
ployees.
Employees there and at other
agencies are at further risk “when
they are required to travel using
mass transit to and from their
workplace, p articularly in areas of
the country where the virus is
surging,” he said in an emailed
statement.
[email protected]Virus-related disability claims for federal workers top 4,000, and counting
Number expected to rise
amid controversy over
adequacy of p rotectionsReports from some of the largest agencies show
nearly 19,000 infections and nearly 100 deaths.
arriving from A merican hot spots,
prevented the Toronto Blue Jays
from playing at their home stadi-
um. The team initiated a search
for a 2020 home and ultimately
decided to play at the stadium of
their Class AAA affiliate in Buffa-
lo.
The fate of the MLB season, a nd
that of all American sports to one
degree or another, is tied to the
fate of the U. S. response to the
coronavirus. With the country
adding 60 ,000 to 70,000 new cas-
es each day, it is perhaps not a
surprise its sports leagues would
have a difficult time pulling off
their s easons.
While t he Korea Baseball Orga-
nization in South Korea launched
its season in early May a nd is now
playing in stadiums at 70 percent
capacity, and while Germany’s
Bundesliga soccer league last
month wrapped up its 2019 -
season using a similar model to
the one being tried by MLB, those
countries were far more success-
ful in defeating the virus than the
United States.
“We haven’t done any of the
things that other countries have
done to bring sports back,” Na-
tionals closer Sean Doolittle said
this month. “Sports are like the
reward of a functioning society.”
Baseball officials, the stewards
of a sport that is both a national
pastime and an $11 billion-per-
year industry, believed they could
thread a 60-game season through
the complex fabric of a once-in-a-
century pandemic. Just five days
in, that now looks like a monu-
mental task, and the 2020 base-
ball season has reached its first
crisis point.
[email protected]Mark Maske contributed to this
report.When the test results came back
Monday morning, they revealed
the additional positive t ests.
“A fter a successful [camp], we
have now experienced challenges
once we went on the road and left
Miami,” Marlins chief operating
officer Derek Jeter, the H all of
Fame former shortstop, said in a
statement Monday. “Postponing
[Monday night’s] home opener
was the correct decision to ensure
we take a collective pause and try
to properly grasp the totality of
this situation. We h ave conducted
another round of testing for our
players and staff, and our team
will all remain in Philadelphia
pending the results of those tests,
which w e expect later [Monday].”
Rather than a bubble, MLB has
pinned its hopes for 2020 largely
on its testing regimen, with most
personnel tested every other day
and those results being turned
around within 24 to 48 hours. In
the latest round of testing data
released by MLB on Friday, there
had been only 10 players who had
newly tested positive over the pre-
vious two weeks.
However, because of the lag
time before test results can be
learned and the incubation peri-
od of the virus, one f ear expressed
by epidemiologists was that an
infected but asymptomatic player
could s pread t he virus to his team-
mates before realizing he was a
carrier. Each of those 10 positive
cases, in other w ords, was a poten-
tial vector for the virus.
“I can’t b elieve they played that
game [Sunday],” Binney said.
“Four cases should have been
enough t o cancel it.”
The added degree of difficulty
once teams began to travel was
underscored last week when the
Canadian government, based
largely on fears of visiting playersposed; it’s n ot a positive t hing. But
I don’t see it as a nightmare. We
built the protocols to allow us to
continue to play. That’s why we
have the expanded rosters. That’s
why we have the pools o f addition-
al players. And we think we can
keep people safe and continue to
play.”
Like most teams, the Marlins,
following a three-week training
camp at their home stadium, be-
gan traveling last week, playing a
pair of exhibition games in Atlan-
ta. After the first of those games,
Marlins Manager Don Mattingly
decried the lack o f available space
in which to take cover from rain
that fell t hroughout the game.
“We had all these guys and
nowhere to go,” Mattingly told
reporters in a Zoom interview.
“Then we’ve got a zillion guys in
the dugout — so there’s no way
we’re social distancing.”
By the time the Marlins opened
the regular season Friday night in
Philadelphia, at least one Marlins
player, catcher Jorge Alfaro, was
believed to have already tested
positive — although the team, per
MLB protocols and privacy con-
cerns, did not reveal the positive
test.
By Sunday morning, the Mar-
lins had learned three more play-
ers had tested positive — pitcher
José Ureña, first baseman Garrett
Cooper and outfielder Harold
Ramirez. And while Marlins play-
ers held a team meeting t o discuss
what to do, the notion of not
playing was never seriously con-
sidered, according to Mattingly
and shortstop Miguel Rojas.
Rather than fly home after the
game, an 11-6 Miami win, the
Marlins decided to remain in Phil-
adelphia overnight as they await-
ed the results o f teamwide corona-
virus testing and contact tracing.have to address and have to think
about making a change — wheth-
er that was shutting down a part
of the season, the whole season,
that depends on the circumstanc-
es,” Manfred said on MLB Net-
work. “ Same thing with respect to
leaguewide. You get to a certain
point leaguewide where it does
become a health threat, and we
certainly would shut down at t hat
point.”
Other teams across MLB
viewed the Marlins’ outbreak as a
wake-up call to tighten their own
behavior in the dugout and o n the
field: follow social distancing
guidelines, avoid high-fives, wear
masks.
“Quite frankly, it’s something
we have to do a better job of here,
too,” Seattle Mariners Manager
Scott Servais said in a Zoom inter-
view with reporters. “We’re saying
all the right stuff, [ but] we have to
do the right thing. Sometimes you
let your emotions get in the way
and you just react. But we do have
to be smart.”
Teams were allotted 30 -man
active rosters this year, four more
than previously allotted, and 30 -
man satellite rosters to ride out a
potential outbreak — which
means the Marlins, theoretically,
could field a team for its upcom-
ing games made up of a combina-
tion of unaffected players from
their big league roster and re-
serves from their alternative site
in nearby Jupiter, Fla.
However, Binney said his rec-
ommendation is that MLB shut
down the Marlins for two weeks
and the Phillies for five days “and
hope you don’t have a broader
problem.”
“I don’t put this in the ‘night-
mare’ category,” Manfred said of
Monday’s news. “Obviously, we
don’t want any player to get ex-over the past few days — launch-
ing a 60 -game season starting
four months after its original
Opening Day and played entirely
without fans — presents a sober-
ing outlook for the NFL and col-
lege football, both of which hope
to play full seasons without bub-
bles and without the inherent
social distancing that baseball, at
least theoretically, provides.
NFL Commissioner Roger
Goodell wrote in a letter to fans
Monday that the league hopes to
have “a healthy and complete
2020 season,” and Allen Sills, the
league’s c hief medical o fficer, said
in a phone interview that he re-
mained “cautiously optimistic”
about the NFL season but realized
that “this is going to be hard.”
“Even though we don’t antici-
pate that it’s going to disappear
overnight, are there ways that we
can learn to coexist and still take
on some semblance of our normal
activities while keeping the virus
at bay?” Sills said. “I think that’s a
really important goal for every-
one, not just for the NFL and
professional sports or sports in
general. But that’s what all of us in
society a re looking to.”
Baseball’s 1 13-page 2020 opera-
tions manual — containing the
health and safety protocols de-
signed to prevent precisely what
has happened with the Marlins —
covers issues ranging from testing
frequency (every other day for
most personnel), social distanc-
ing (players spaced apart in the
dugout) and hygiene (no spitting
allowed). But it does not define
the standard by which MLB
would halt the season, a power
that rests with Manfred.
“I think that a team losing a
number of players that rendered
it completely noncompetitive
would be an issue that we wouldwould be limited to the Marlins,
allowing the season to go f orward.
“We expected we were going to
have positives at some point in
time,” Commissioner Rob Man-
fred said Monday in an interview
on MLB Network. “I remain opti-
mistic that the protocols are
strong enough that it will allow us
to continue to play, even through
an outbreak like this, and com-
plete our season.”
MLB postponed the Marlins’
home opener scheduled for Mon-
day night against the Baltimore
Orioles at Miami’s Marlins Park,
as well as that night’s scheduled
game in Philadelphia between the
Phillies, who hosted the Marlins
over the weekend, and New York
Yankees.
While MLB officials stressed
the outbreak was limited to just
one team, other teams, including
the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta
Braves, have experienced multi-
ple positive tests or symptomatic
players in recent days. And if an
outbreak spreads across one
team, i t increases the likelihood of
the virus being transmitted to an
opponent or — in the case of the
Yankees, who were about to use
the same visiting clubhouse at
Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park
that the Marlins just vacated —
potentially a third team as w ell.
Ten other MLB games sched-
uled for Monday went forward as
expected (though one was eventu-
ally rained out), but the Marlins
remained under self-quarantine
at their Philadelphia hotel a wait-
ing results of teamwide coronavi-
rus tests.
In his interview with MLB Net-
work, Manfred said the Marlins
would not play Monday or Tues-
day night but were still aiming to
play as scheduled in Baltimore
against t he Orioles on Wednesday
and Thursday. “We’re doing some
additional testing,” h e said. “If the
testing results are acceptable, the
Marlins will resume play in Balti-
more on Wednesday against the
Orioles.” After their two games in
Baltimore, the Marlins are sched-
uled to return to Miami to host the
Washington Nationals for three
games b eginning Friday.
“Hopefully they make the right
decision. That’s all I’m going to
say,” Nationals Manager Dave
Martinez said Monday when
asked about the prospect of tak-
ing his team to Miami this week-
end. “My level of concern went
from an eight to a 12.”
As a b ellwether for the feasibili-
ty of big-time professional sports
amid a pandemic — at least in a
nation struggling to contain the
virus, and outside a “bubble”
model designed t o protect partici-
pants within a strict quarantine
environment — t he developments
Monday in baseball were omi-
nous.
“This is off-the-charts bad,”
said Zachary Binney, an epidemi-
ologist and assistant professor at
Oxford College of Emory Univer-
sity. “ This was always my c oncern.
I anticipated an outbreak on a
team, especially on a team from a
city with a high incidence of the
virus. Unfortunately, I’m not sur-
prised to see it happened to a team
from Miami.”
The NBA and NHL open their
seasons this week, the former in a
bubble in Florida, t he latter with a
hub city model in Toronto and
Edmonton. Players, staff and me-
dia were all required to quaran-
tine before entering the bubble
and are not permitted to leave the
secure premises.
However, baseball’s experience
MLB FROM A
Marlins’ outbreak puts MLB season in precarious position
MITCHELL LEFF/ GETTY IMAGES
The Miami Marlins played a weekend series in Philadelphia despite mounting signs of a coronavirus outbreak. Their home opener Monday against the Orioles was postponed.