Coronavirus: Security guards for homeless shelter denied face masks

In place of a face mask, one of his supervisors gave him a folded paper towel, stapled together, that had elastics on each side.

The United States now has over 145,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, and New York—the epicenter of the virus in the US—is responsible for around 60,000 of those cases.

The Post Millennial was in touch with the man who wished to remain anonymous and was not comfortable revealing organization. He said, “When this outbreak first started we were told by the non-profit that contracts with my company that we’re not allowed to wear masks. When we asked why, they said ‘well because it might scare the clients because this is a homeless shelter.’”

“We were told that the non-profit didn't want us doing it. One of my coworkers was written up because he was wearing a mask.”

He noted that the non-profit employees were able to wear masks when the security workers were still being told they were not allowed to. He added that now that they are allowed to wear protective equipment, the company he works for still isn’t providing masks for workers.

When a supervisor gave him a paper towel to use as a face mask, he became upset. He said, “This is not going to protect me from anything or anyone”

The supervisor responded saying, “That's all we’ve got”

“I brought my own masks, I brought my own gloves and my own hand sanitizer.” he said.

When asked what made the company change its rules and allowed workers to begin wearing protective equipment the man said, “We basically complained because a few days ago we found out that one of the clients here was infected and they knew before hand and they only told us after the person was removed from the facility.”

The man said he has filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration(OSHA) and hopes to see improved working conditions.