Sacramento County contemplates paying essential workers with COVID-19 to quarantine

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    SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) — A proposal from the Sacramento County Health Department would give essential workers with COVID-19 $1,000 to stay home to limit the spread of the virus.

County Health Director Dr. Peter Beilenson says a lot of people feel like they simply can’t afford to miss work, and they’re putting others at risk. He’s hoping the extra money will be enough to help them get by and quarantine like they should.

“They cannot afford to not work,” said La Familia Executive Director Rachel Rios.

Faced with financial ruin, some essential workers across Sacramento County are still reporting to work, even when they know they have COVID-19.

“Without paid sick leave and without the ability to stay home, who’s going to pay their rent? Who’s going to buy food for their families?” Rios asked.

As the executive director of La Familia in South Sacramento, Rios sees this issue everyday at their testing site, especially impacting Latino community members.

But she’s hopeful that a new plan from county health officials will encourage those who are sick to say home.

“It’s still in proposal phase, but the idea is this would serve predominately agricultural workers, day laborers and essential workers who make a certain amount of money or less,” Beilenson told FOX40.

Beilenson says they got the idea from San Francisco and Alameda counties, which have already launched similar programs.

The program would be funded through federal CARES Act money and not everyone would qualify.

“One of the requirements is clearly going to be that they do not get sick pay since then they’d be double-dipping,” Beilenson explained.

He says contact tracers would be in charge of checking in on these patients by phone and in person if necessary to ensure they are isolating.

They would only get the money at the end of quarantine.

Beilenson says it would help supplement a state program that’s rolling out called Housing for the Harvest.

It’ll provide temporary housing for farm workers with the virus so they don’t spread it to members of their household.

In the Hmong community, it’s a major concern since their households are often multi-generational.

“We’ve heard stories in our community, a son tested positive for COVID-19 and brought it within the family. And his father actually passed away,” said Mai Yang, with Hmong Youth and Parents United.

Community groups now hope programs like these can prevent further tragedy.

“This will protect them but it will also protect all of us because they won’t be able to spread,” Rios said.

The county is still ironing out the details for who exactly can qualify. So, they aren’t sure how much this would end up costing in CARES Act funding.

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