VICTORIA -- A City of Victoria worker was pricked by a needle in downtown Victoria on Wednesday.
The city tells CFAX 1070 the incident occurred in the Inner Harbour, near Wharf Street and the seaplane terminal.
The needle prick marks the fourth time that a city worker has received such an injury this year, surpassing the three incidents that took place in all of 2019.
That city says that after any incident of this nature, steps are taken to determine if additional safety measures are needed for municipal staff.
Currently, the municipality says that staff are trained to safely remove needles and assess hazards. Workers are also given personal protective equipment while on the job.
Last week, a local landscaper told CTV News that she would no longer accept contracts to work in downtown Victoria after she was pricked by a needle near a downtown business.
“I found 19 needles in three days,” Kim Hall, owner of Ms. Green Thumb’s Landscaping, said on Aug. 14. “It’s a sad time for downtown Victoria.”
On the same day, Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps told CTV News that the city had formed a new public works team to help clean city streets.
“It’s a four-person team who is being trained up right now with PPE and all the things they need to do,” said Helps.
“We know there’s a problem and they’ll be out on the streets taking care of the issues. They’ll be picking up garbage on sidewalks, left-behind socks, needles and feces,” she said.
That four-person team began working at the beginning of this week.
