OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #221389877
U. S. DEPT. OF NAVY
CHERRY POINT, NC·
Event description
Employee with COVID-19 infection dies
Investigation abstract
An employee was working as a civilian aircraft mechanic at a military air COVID-19 on August 30, 2021. On September 4, 2021, he died. He was unvaccinated, and he had refused to go to the hospital. At the end of August 2021, the state where the employee worked had a high community spread of COVID-19, with a 13.5 percent positive test rate and a 59 percent vaccination rate. It was unclear whether the employee wore a mask while off work or practiced mitigation efforts at home to the same degree required at work. If mitigation efforts were not used outside of work, given the rate of community spread, the risk of exposure to COVID-19 outside of work was high. In addition, prior to the employee's testing positive, both his father-in-law and mother-in-law had tested positive for COVID-19 and were symptomatic. It appeared station. He worked in a 20 foot by 64 foot (6.1 meter by 19.5 meter) office. that the employee was exposed to COVID-19 by his extended family in the period leading up to his diagnosis. An investigation concluded that the employee did not contract COVID-19 in the workplace. There was no evidence that he was exposed there, and extensive evidence of sufficient mitigation efforts in the workplace to prevent workplace transmission and protect workers. The investigation found it more likely that the employee was exposed to COVID-19 by family members or through high community spread. This was not an OSHA-covered fatality. Twenty employees were assigned to work in this area. They were not usually all in this area at one time, as their jobs required them to be working on aircraft within a hangar. Desks were arranged so that there was more than 6 feet (1.8 meters) between desk work areas. Plexiglas-type barriers had been positioned between desks to prevent the spread of aerosolized droplets. The employee began to exhibit symptoms of COVID-19 while at work, on August 27, 2021. He was advised not to return, and that was his last day at work. He tested positive for
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 51 M
- Event type
- 14
- Occupation code
- 515
Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.