Quarantined with COVID-19 with no paid sick days
“Right after they agreed to pay us $3 more an hour for hazard pay, I was called to the office to learn I tested positive for COVID-19. We showed up to work everyday and we did what were were asked to do as far as taking care of the residents. I contracted this virus.” said Nichole Scott, who peeks out the second floor of a house that she shares with her daughter and grandchildren on Monday, May 2020, in Baden. Scott, a CNA and a receptionist at Bernard Care Center, a nursing home in the Central West End, and has been in quarantine since she tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday May 1. “I am asymptomatic so I feel fine but I don’t understand this virus. I am in the dark since I have a comorbidity. I am a dialysis patient. I need dialysis three times a week. I have seen what this virus can do. I lost my sister to COVID-19 on April 5th,” said Scott. The nursing home is not paying for paid sick leave during the quarantine, forcing employees to use their accruals and to apply for unpaid medical leave when they run out. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com