NORWICH - The Norwich Fire Department is continuing to promote social distancing by limiting access to its station and screening firefighters who come into contact with coronavirus patients.

According to City of Norwich Fire Department Chief Jan Papelino, it isn’t uncommon for government agencies to limit access to their building during this pandemic, and it’s important that responders continue to promote social distancing in order to keep everyone safe.

“As far as the station goes, we’re like a lot of other public entities, we’re kind of locked down,” said Papelino. “The only people who come in here are the people who are working on that shift.”

“The exception to that is if there is a fire or accident, and in that case everybody comes.”

Papelino said he hopes limiting access to that fire station to on-shift employees only will slow or stop the coronavirus from spreading to the station, and so far they have been successful in keeping the virus away.

“Just the staff that are working that day are allowed into the building, and we’re doing that to try to keep our people healthy,” he said. “They’re already around enough people that have tested positive, and the less contact each person has with someone who may be infected the better.”