News & Updates

COVID-19 UPDATE – April 2, 2020

 

COVID-19 Case Notification – April 2, 2020 – PDF

 

April 2, 2020

Dear Employees,

In order to have full transparency, we will be reporting the number of employees who have worked in
our Berks and Lehigh County facilities since March 19, 2020 and had a confirmed positive COVID-19
test result. We will update you on a weekly basis of new cases. Currently, there are 3 confirmed cases
of employees from our Berks and Lehigh County facilites.

In accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), we have to
maintain confidentiality of those confirmed positive and cannot disclose any additional details in order to
protect their safety and privacy. However, those employees potentially effected have been identified
and contacted as part of the investigation.

We have implemented a series of exposure controls and communications (personal hygiene, social
distancing and cleaning/disinfecting frequent touch points) in an effort to prevent the spread of the
COVID-19 in our facilities. Using the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and
Prevention and Department of Health, we will make direct contact with those individuals that may be
impacted. If you are not notified, that means you have NOT been identified as an at risk party.

We are taking the proper precautions for confirmed cases extremely seriously. When East Penn is
notified of a case, our COVID-19 Response Team will immediately start a full INVESTIGATION to
determine any individuals with direct or close contact or exposure with the effected individual. (Our
COVID-19 team includes highly trained medical and safety professionals as well as special operations
staff). Next, those potentially exposed individuals will be medically screened to determine their risk of
exposure and pending the result may need to be immediately removed from the workplace and placed
in a QUARANTINED status. While this is taking place, and based on the outcome of the investigation,
a CLEAN & DISINFECT process will be initiated at the locations defined as potentially exposed area(s).
All cases are properly handled following the prescribed protocols by the CDC.

As the COVID-19 situation continues to potentially intensify, companies will need to deal with
increasing reported positive cases within their communities. As a company that is deeply concerned for
people’s safety and well-being, we want you to know that we are trying to do what we believe is right.
We know that there are many concerns about how this is affecting our employees, their families and
East Penn – as there should be since we are a close community and we are all in this together.

We are making every effort to protect employees while they are here at East Penn. We are
concerned for all of those affected by this difficult situation. In this unprecedented time we ask
that we support each other and that everyone follows necessary guidelines both at work and at
home. We sincerely appreciate the amazing efforts of our employees to best implement our
social distancing practices.

Sincerely,

Dan Breidegam         Chris Pruitt          Bob Flicker      Christy Weeber
     Chairman            CEO/President           COO                       CFO