Getting to the bottom of a coronavirus scare Wednesday in the Forest County Courthouse that shut down court for the day proved complex.
“For the better part of a day we thought the worst case scenario had hit our courthouse,” County Commissioner Bob Snyder said.
Tuesday evening, a Forest County “court related employee” told her supervisor that her husband had been exposed to coronavirus or gotten coronavirus, Snyder said.
The court was closed as a result, Snyder said.
Inmates and guards from the SCI Forest state prison, inmates from the Warren County jail and law enforcement officers who were at court in Tionesta were sent away, Snyder said.
“The court employees panicked. It was mass hysteria, some of them were crying,” Snyder said.
Upon further investigation the threat was found to be completely unfounded.
“No one in the story was exposed to or tested positive for the coronavirus,” Snyder said.
Snyder called the experience “eye opening.”
“The scary part is that the employee was in the courthouse all of Tuesday. She said she didn’t know about the issue until Tuesday evening,” Snyder said.
Commissioners put additional precautionary measures into effect at the courthouse after Wednesday’s scare.
Commissioners on Wednesday canceled their reservations to the County Commissioners of Pennsylvania spring conference, then the conference was canceled Thursday due to virus concerns.
Commissioners have also put in place a travel ban for county employees until mid April, then they will re-evaluate the situation.
“We will lift the ban when the threat is less,” Snyder said.
The county transportation department has put hand sanitizer and various other disinfectants in all the county transportation vehicles, Snyder said.
Hand sanitizer was also put in the courthouse.
“We are taking all necessary precautions,” Snyder said. “The big problem is test kits are hard to come by and it is hard to tell if you have coronavirus if you don’t get tested.”
Voters are encouraged to apply for absentee ballots for the April 28 primary election to cut down on exposure at the polls, Snyder said.