A LEAKED Fife Council document said 16 employees have tested positive for coronavirus.

The authority is also probing 62 enquiries into alleged breaches of lockdown restrictions.

A briefing to all councillors, given by chief executive Steve Grimmond on April 28, to update members on how the public health crisis is impacting on their workforce and services, has been leaked to the Times.

He wrote: “We have 5,710 recorded instances of public health absence/COVID-19-related leave and 4,292 of these are recorded as working from home.

“There are currently 16 employees who have been positively diagnosed with coronavirus. This number is expected to change as testing continues.”

There are almost 11,000 Fifers on the shielding list and 280 emergency food parcels have been delivered to vulnerable people on the list, while progress is being made for funerals to be broadcast online and community use schools to re-open.

Virtual council meetings will soon get under way and a new hardship relief fund for the self-employed is about to be launched.

Mr Grimmond also said: “Consideration is now being given to how we might re-open some buildings and facilities, including council offices, community centres and schools with community use.”

The council asked for staff in non-essential roles to consider volunteering to help in other areas and 859 are in the Team Fife pool with a further 110 already in new roles or ready for immediate deployment.

He added: “The issues around Fife Council staff volunteering to work in private care homes are being considered.”

Care at home, adult resources and care homes have received orders of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) – new face visors have also been sourced – within the last week and new guidelines on the distribution of PPE “will be in place as soon as possible”.

The numbers attending children’s activity centres, set up for the kids of key workers, have increased and each centre has access to education psychology services.

At the time of writing, he said 8,852 people on the shielding list had been phoned “to make sure they are getting the support they need” and that 216 who couldn’t be reached were being written to. If there is no response, a home visit will be made.

Mr Grimmond said: “A further 2,000 have been added to the shielding list and contact with them has begun.”

The council’s repair centre, which dealt with more than 200 calls in one day, is only taking urgent emergency repairs and extra staff have been added to the team to help manage demand. Preparations are “under way for webcasting” at funerals and additional resources have been added at crematoria.

He added: “The cabling and other infrastructure work was completed last weekend and the necessary hardware is on order.”

Environmental health and trading standards officers are investigating 62 enquiries and complaints relating to COVID-19 regulations; a number relate to holiday homes.

And central and west planning committee will move to virtual meetings which “will also help support Fife’s economic recovery”.

Mr Grimmond added that planning enforcement cases “are still being considered”.

He explained: “There are no site visits but photographs and online tools are being used to assist the process.”