Muni operator on longterm leave dies from COVID19
A Muni operator has died from COVID19 complications, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and local union officials said Tuesday.
In a YouTube announcement, SFMTA Transportation Director Jeffrey Tumlin said the operator had been on longterm leave since before the coronavirus pandemic began, and “had not come into contact with anyone in recent months.”
Tumlin and Roger Marenco, president of Transport Workers Union Local 250A, said they would not release the operator’s name out of respect for the family’s privacy.
“Our sympathies, of course, are with the family who is dealing with this tragedy on top of everything else from the compounded impact of the pandemic,” Tumlin said. “They have asked for privacy, so we will not be releasing the operator’s name and we ask that you all respect that.”
Marenco said that the death of one union member is “one too many, and our entire TWU family, along with the MTA family, is feeling this terrible loss.”
As of Tuesday, Tumlin said 90 Muni employees have tested positive for the coronavirus, and
in “nearly all cases,” employees experienced “moderate symptoms.”
Tumlin said Muni officials do contact tracing in every positive case to identify staff members whom they could have been in close contact with. Anyone who is identified as being a close contact is told to quarantine, and they are allowed to return to work only after following strict Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and San Francisco Department of Public Health quarantine and return-to- work processes, Tumlin said.