A sudden spike in covid cases at the Jefferson County Courthouse has led to its closure at least through Friday.
County Judge Gerald Robinson sent out a memo Monday morning to the county's elected officials and department heads to say the courthouse would be closed "until further notice."
In a phone interview, Robinson said he took the action because employees in several offices throughout the courthouse had tested positive for the coronavirus late last week. He said he talked to elected officials over the weekend to see if the spread had worsened but said he had already made up his mind to close the building based on how quickly the omicron variant of the virus is spreading.
"As a precaution, I made the decision to close the courthouse because we had employees testing positive for covid," Robinson said, "This will give us time to deep-sanitize the courthouse."
Robinson said the various county offices will continue to work remotely and that the public can transact county business online.
"One day last week, there were 6,000 new cases of covid in the state," Robinson said. "The next day, there were 7,000, and then on Friday there were 8,000 cases. There's no telling where this is going to go."
Robinson said that, even though there have been multiple spikes of the coronavirus, "this is the first time we've had this many employees test positive. We didn't have any before."
The county judge didn't say exactly how many employees had tested positive but that several of the county's departments each had one or more employees out sick.
Robinson said he wanted to encourage employees to try to avoid getting covid and get vaccinated if they hadn't already done so to avoid getting seriously ill with the virus. He also encouraged them to get tested if they aren't feeling well or have been exposed to someone with covid.
"Covid is still making people sick and people are still going into the hospital and dying," Robinson said. "It's rampant and it's really contagious. People have not been taking it seriously, especially over the Christmas and New Year's holidays. And now it's catching up to us."
Robinson said the courthouse would be fogged with a disinfectant and cleaned thoroughly in advance of being able to reopen the building on Jan. 17, though that would depend on the conditions at that time.
Late last week, Mayor Shirley Washington issued a statement saying that anyone coming into a city building required to wear a mask.
William Fells, an assistant to the mayor, said Monday that the city was not considering taking further action at this time. He said there had been a few city employees test positive for covid and that those employees were following covid protocols as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and state Health Department.
"We have no plans right now to shut down the buildings," Fells said.