The adult probation office at the Westmoreland County Courthouse was closed Tuesday after a staff member tested positive for coronavirus.
Commissioner Doug Chew confirmed the positive test and said the employee had not been at the courthouse since July 21.
“It will take 48 hours to sanitize the office and all who were in direct contact with that person have been notified,” Chew said. “There is always a chance this could be more widespread, but we are taking the necessary precautions as our track record of keeping out of our offices at the courthouse, at the (Westmoreland) Manor and the prison is exemplary.”
The most recent case of coronavirus is the fourth reported at the courthouse since the start of July. Officials said three workers at the Manor, the county-owned nursing home, tested positive since the pandemic’s onset in late March. None of those workers had direct contact with residents, Chew said
Prison officials reported that, over the last two weeks, two new inmates at the county jail tested positive . Both are in quarantine and isolated from the general population.
Chew on Tuesday confirmed that two of the four courthouse cases were among staff in the probation office and a third case was in the children’s bureau.
As a result of the most recent positive case, more than 60 probation revocation hearings scheduled Tuesday before Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Feliciani were canceled. Criminal court proceedings scheduled in other courtrooms, including pretrial conferences and guilty pleas, continued.
Court Administrator Amy DeMatt said a potential scaling back of court operations has not been discussed.
“We’re just following what the Westmoreland County human resources department is telling us to do,” DeMatt said.
Courts have operated with a relatively normal schedule since mid-June and criminal jury trials areexpected to restart next week, DeMatt said. Trials have been on hiatus since March because of the pandemic.
In neighboring Allegheny County, a coronavirus outbreak in various court-related offices prompted the decision to indefinitely shut down in-person hearings in favor of remote sessions when possible.
