Days before it reopens for more business, Meck courthouse gets confirmed case of COVID-19
A Mecklenburg County Courthouse employee has tested positive for COVID-19 only days before the building is scheduled to resume more activities and draw greater numbers through its doors.
The employee, an assistant clerk of court who worked in a third-floor office, was confirmed to have the disease on Thursday, said Clerk of Court Elisa Chinn Gary. Eight of the sick employee’s co-workers have been quarantined for testing.
The positive test, the first inside the clerk’s office, added to a flurry of virus-related activity already underway in Charlotte busiest government building.
Chinn-Gary said the third floor was closed and deep cleaned Thursday afternoon.
On Friday, courthouse employees were taping off 6-foot intervals in hopes of maintaining social distancing in busy courthouse areas when bigger crowds arrive Monday.
Courthouse officials and the Mecklenburg County government were still scrambling to find hand-sanitizer dispensers to place at courthouse entrances, outside of elevators and in heavy-trafficked corridors.
Work will continue through the weekend to install Plexiglas shields inside the courtrooms scheduled to open Monday. Courthouse officials also were finalizing an administrative order that will require anyone entering a courtroom to wear a mask.
Under a statewide shutdown of much of the N.C. court system to slow the pandemic, the courthouse had only 13,000 visitors in April, compared to its normal monthly total of around 70,000.
On Monday, Chinn Gary expects her staff’s daily interactions with the public to double or triple.
She and Chief District Judge Elizabeth Trosch warned the public to stay away from the courthouse except for essential matters or emergencies.
“The community spread of this disease continues, and it has reached the courthouse,” Trosch said. “It is not safe to go into public places like this without face coverings and only if it is truly necessary.”
Earlier this month, District Attorney Spencer Merriweather confirmed that one of his prosecutors had tested positive for COVID-19, but that the prosecutor had not worked in the office for weeks before showing symptoms.
Superior Court Judge Donnie Hoover and his wife, Josephine, both tested positive for the disease. Josephine Hoover was hospitalized with extreme symptoms. Both have since recovered.
Chinn Gary said her employee began feeling ill last week, stayed home Thursday and Friday and was tested.
Her illness and the resulting quarantines of her co-workers worsens a staffing shortage as Chinn Gary’s office gears up to handle more visitors next week.
Due largely to virus-related resignations, retirements and medical leaves, the office is working with about 65 percent of its normal staffing and numbers continue to fall, Chinn Gary said.
With courtrooms remaining on a restricted schedule next week, most of the additional people expected to enter the courthouse Monday likely will be making a beeline to a clerk’s window.
Chinn-Gary spoke to the Observer on Friday as she took a walking tour of the building. She said the lines at the clerk’s windows this week “scare me.”
“They scare my staff as well, and I expect even greater absenteeism as they assess their risks,” she said.
She suggested residents who have business in the courthouse, call the clerk’s office first.
“If you elect to come to the building, you are putting yourself and others at risk,” she said.
This story was originally published May 29, 2020 at 3:28 PM with the headline "Days before it reopens for more business, Meck courthouse gets confirmed case of COVID-19."
