More than 900 East Ayrshire Council employees are self-isolating as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread in the area.
The local authority has prioritised critical services to deal with staff shortages and curb the spread of the virus.
A total of 57 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the NHS Ayrshire & Arran region, according to figures released yesterday.
A source said it is believed over 900 council staff are self-isolating. The local authority employs a total of about 6,000 people.
Nearly 2,000 people are working from home. The council has scaled back on non-essential work.
Hundreds of council employees have volunteered to take on new roles to provide cover and make sure essential services continue during the health crisis.
The council’s depute chief executive Katie Kelly said they have been “magnificent” in rising to the challenge.
She said: “We're taking our responsibilities to keep both our staff and communities as safe and well as we possibly can during this exceptional spell.
“This means we've issued extensive guidelines to all our staff on who should self isolate and for what reasons, but we've also done everything we can to enable as many people as it's practically possible, to work from home, and heed the Scottish Government advice not to go out unless absolutely necessary.”
Services have been reorganised and offices and buildings are closed to the public. Fifteen schools have been transformed into childcare centres to look after the kids of key workers fighting the virus on the frontline.
Ms Kelly said: “The response from our staff has been magnificent. We've got nearly 2000 people working from home and many others who are still out there doing what they can to look after the most vulnerable in our society.
She added: “Last week we issued an extensive questionnaire to all our staff so that we could work out what they need, what they can do and what we could do to help them.
“As a result we've had a fantastic response, with hundreds volunteering to change roles and take on alternative tasks to provide cover and help keep our essential services running.”
More than 80 community groups have come forward to help look after neighbours during the lockdown.
Ms Kelly said: “Our Vibrant Communities team are overwhelmed with the tremendously enthusiastic response from the community too, with over 80 community groups coming forward to help where they can.
“We've also put together a suite of webpages and started a regular email bulletin to complement our usual social media to help people keep up to date with the ever changing situation and the adaptations we're making to keep our vital services going.”
