Hundreds of patrons of the New Orleans Public Library system petitioned the city on Saturday to shutter the system as library and other city workers expressed fear they will be required to show up for work through the coronavirus crisis.

With schools closed and large gatherings banned across Louisiana to try to prevent the spread of COVID-19, public employees said they were concerned their offices and library branches will become reservoirs of disease.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell said at a City Hall press conference on Friday that some city workers will be put on paid leave and departments will explore work-from-home arrangements.

On the same day, Cantrell sent an email to city workers stating that they were “tasked with continuing to work through this challenge, as we have with those before.” The email didn't say who would be allowed to work from home or take leave, although it promised further updates.

Cantrell was expected to give another press conference on Sunday.

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Meanwhile, the library system has told employees that it expects them to continue reporting to work. The system stated on its website that access to its locations will be “limited” starting Monday, but without elaborating.

The promise that branches will stay open spawned an online petition with an unusual request: patrons calling for their immediate closure.

More than 400 people signed the petition asking the city and New Orleans Public Library administration to follow the lead of Seattle, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Cincinnati and other cities.

“The most effective form of prevention for spread of the coronavirus is social distancing,” the petitioners said. “Libraries are not currently equipped to ensure this distance is maintained between patrons, staff and volunteers. They are unequipped to properly sanitize the surfaces patrons interact with on a regular basis.”

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Several alarmed city and library workers said they have been left in the dark about how they and the public will be protected. Those workers spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak with the press.

“Just in a general sense, I think it’s a poor idea to have a bunch of people gather during a pandemic,” one city worker said.

But the worker has a more personal concern: an underlying condition that could present a serious health threat were the worker to contract COVID-19.

“I’m doing things to keep myself isolated from other people, but I can’t do that if I have to report to work,” the worker said.

That worker said they believed they could conduct many tasks from home. But working from home isn’t an option for many library employees, because their jobs generally involve direct contact with patrons and media, one employee said.

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Even people without COVID-19 symptoms can still carry the virus, the employee noted.

“You could not have a fever, but you could be bringing in books or DVDs or CDs or audio books. We handle a lot of material,” the librarian said.

The library system has supplied material to the book club at Lambeth House, an Uptown retirement home that has a "cluster" of at least nine residents who have tested positive, the employee said.

The librarian acknowledged that there are trade-offs involved in closing an important public space. The city’s homeless population would lose a daytime haven, for example, if the libraries are not open.

“The issue is, with this virus circulating, it’s not a safe place to be,” the worker said.