Cerner staffer in south Kansas City tests positive for coronavirus, company tells workers
A Cerner employee has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, company officials told workers on Tuesday.
The global health care IT firm sent an email to workers at the Realization campus warning that one of their peers had tested positive for Covid-19. That email was widely shared on social media. The Star independently obtained that email from a current Cerner employee.
The email does not identify the employee because of medical privacy concerns, but it says “anyone who had direct access with the associate was notified directly.”
As of late Tuesday afternoon, the Kansas City Health Department had not received word that any Kansas City resident had tested positive for COVID-19, the department’s public information officer, Michelle Pekarsky, said in an email.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the Cerner employee represented a new case of the virus or might live in another part of the Kansas City metropolitan area with previously announced cases.
In a statement to The Star, Cerner spokeswoman Misti Preston said the company learned of the positive test result on Tuesday and was “taking necessary precautions.” That included asking those who came into contact with the individual to self quarantine. After the campus was closed for deep cleaning Tuesday, employees who were not exposed were moved to other campuses, she said.
“The Realization campus will remain closed until it is thoroughly cleaned and disinfected,” the statement said. “Protecting associates’ health and continuing to meet our health care clients’ needs are our top priorities.”
Preston said the company was following the guidance of the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health officials.
The Realization campus occupies the former Marion Laboratories complex near the Grandview Triangle. With some 14,000 employees working on campuses across the metro, Cerner is the metro’s largest private employer.
On Sunday, Cerner asked all employees who can work virtually to work from home until at least March 30. Many Cerner employees travel frequently as Cerner sells and supports technology for health care providers across the globe. But the company has temporarily halted all international and “non-critical” travel.
“We understand that as a health care technology company our work to support health systems across the globe must continue,” Cerner said in a blog post. “We’re working continuously to evaluate the best decisions for our associates and clients and making decisions accordingly.”
That blog post said the company’s Covid-19 task force “has been working around the clock to help support a healthy, safe workplace for associates and clients.”
Earlier in the day Tuesday, health department officials announced a woman in her 80s from the eastern part of the county was the first presumptive positive case of the novel coronavirus in Jackson County.
The woman had not traveled recently and she tested positive for Covid-19 through a private lab, the health department said.
As of Tuesday, 16 cases of the disease had been identified in Kansas and nine in Missouri. Nationwide, more than 5,7000 cases and 94 deaths have been reported, according to a database maintained by Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, more than 194,000 cases and 7,865 deaths were reported.
This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 4:54 PM.
