Orange County has closed buildings to sanitize after a sheriff’s office employee tested positive for Covid 19 and other employees have taken the test, but have not learned the results.
County Judge John Gothia said officials know the man who tested positive has been in the sheriff’s office complex, along with the administration building and the old courthouse.
“The first thing we need to know is where he’s been at,” Gothia told KOGT’s Gary Stelly during The Morning Show Monday.
Sunday, the county had 23 tests returned positive for the novel corona virus with 99 results pending. The 2010 census had the county population at nearly 82,000.
Gothia last week said he’s trying to get a testing center in the county, but the number of calls to the hotline have decreased. He said it looks like the two regional testing centers, at the Southeast Texas Regional Airport and one in Hardin County, are enough right now.
However, Orange County is prepared to open a testing center and will need only to get medical personnel to operate it, he said. Last week he said the county has contracted with a company to provide the personnel.
“I’m glad to see the numbers (of calls) going down,” he said.
The county buildings have been closed to most of the general public for two weeks, but employees were working. The county has scheduled holiday for Good Friday and Gothia hopes employees will be able to go back to work next Monday.
The cleaning crews will wipe everything down with sanitizers. He said some areas will be “fogged” with a solution.
“We’re trying to do everything we’re asking other people to do,” he said.
The county has closed the landfill and the Expo Center to the public, too.
The Texas Department of Public Safety has set up a stop on Interstate 10 at the state border for personal vehicles to check as part of a mandate from Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Gothia said DPS notified the county of the system and the county has nothing to do with it.
He also thanked the local clergy for giving church services online to keep people safe from contagion. “We all want to worship,” he said.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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