CHARLESTON -- Three more Kanawha County employees from offices associated with the legal system have tested positive for Coronoavirus.
Kanawha County Commissioner Ben Salango said July 15 an employee in the prosecutor’s office and another in the circuit clerk’s office have tested positive. Another employee in the circuit clerk’s office tested positive last week. He also said officials think at least two of three new confirmed case are travel-related.
He said the employees are following properly guidelines, had been wearing masks and social distancing in their offices. He also said both offices will be cleaned and disinfected.
Salango
Salango said the first circuit clerk employee had not been in the office since July 2. It is suspected that employee was infected at a Fourth of July event. The second circuit clerk employee has been in the office, but Salango said no one is sure how that employee was infected.
“We’re doing contract tracing now,” Salango told The West Virginia Record. “Anyone who has been in contact with that employee, we are going to get them tested.
“The same goes for the prosecutor’s office. That employee has been out of office for a week now and had a family member who had tested positive. Out of an abundance of caution, that employee didn’t come into work. But, we will be testing in that office as needed.”
Salango said both the circuit clerk’s and prosecutor’s offices have been working with the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department to discuss proper protocol for employees who may have been in contact with the positive employee as well as to determine the best quarantine procedures.
Salango, who also is an attorney and the Democratic nominee for governor, said the circuit clerk’s office is being professionally cleaned and sanitized, and he said the prosecutor’s office might be as well.
He did say additional safety measures have been put in place at the courthouse and judicial annex. Back in March when the COVID-19 pandemic started, seven Judicial Annex employees and the spouse of one of those employees tested positive. Until the three recent ones, no other employees had tested positive.
“We’ve installed temperature scanners, everyone is wearing a mask,” Salango told The Record. “Judges have been having virtual hearings. They are doing some in-person hearings now as well. The circuit clerk’s office and the county clerk’s office have been working with skeleton crews.
“There are more people back in building, but we’re still using as many precautions as we can.”
Salango, whose wife Tera is a Kanawha Circuit Judge, said the state Supreme Court has left it up to individual counties and judges about whether they choose to have in-person hearings. He said some are and some aren’t. But if judges choose to have trials, they will have to be conducted in-person.
“We’ll have additional safeguards,” Salango said. “We’ll have Plexiglass around the witness stand. We’ll have more measures to protect jurors and counsel. We want to do everything right to protect everyone as best we can.”