Marina court staffer tests positive for Covid-19, all Marina court employees ordered to self-isolate and get tested.

A staff member at the Monterey County Superior Courthouse in Marina has tested positive for Covid-19, and now all staff members there have been sent home with orders to self-isolate and get tested for the virus.

Several employees with knowledge of the situation reached out to the Weekly about the self-isolation order. Court Administrative Officer Chris Ruhl confirmed his office was notified earlier this afternoon that the employee, who started showing symptoms on Tuesday, had received their positive test results today, Thursday, June 11.

The Marina courthouse, where small-claims and traffic cases are heard, was closed today and will remain closed tomorrow (June 12) for deep cleaning.

"We contacted the Health Department, explained the circumstances to them and got their input. This is not an employee who has direct contact with the public and the Health Department didn't feel a broader notification to the public was required," Ruhl says.

About a dozen employees and two court commissioners were asked to self-isolate for two weeks and get tested. There's now an effort underway to trace vendors or bailiffs who have been in and out of the area where the court staffer worked. 

"Public health advised us there's a window of concern—how far do you go back in terms of contact tracing—and that's two days before someone starts showing symptoms," Ruhl says. "They will interview the employee and do the follow-up on that. We feel our job is to identify other employees or people other than the public who have been at the Marina courthouse." 

In an email to Monterey County Superior Court staff, Ruhl writes: "Employees whose work location is not in Marina but who may have spent time in Marina starting Monday of this week (June 8) have likewise been contacted and asked to be tested and to self-quarantine. If you have spent any time at the Marina courthouse since this Monday June 8 and have not yet been contacted by HR or by your supervisor, please let your supervisor and/or HR know ASAP."

Courthouses across the state closed to the public—with most employees being sent home to work remotely or go on leave—after Gov. Gavin Newsom's stay-at-home order and Monterey County Health Officer Edward Moreno's shelter-in-place order. Hearings have been taking place remotely via webcam for many cases, and jury trials were to have resumed June 1, although no jury trial has taken place since the county court system re-opened to the public.

Not all systems were so eager to open up. In Riverside County, for example, four courthouses were supposed to re-open on June 14, but instead will remain closed to the public until June 29, after Presiding Judge John Vineyard decided it was too soon for those facilities to re-open, according to a story in The Desert Sun. Those four are the Corona, Hemet and Temecula courthouses, along with traffic and small-claims court in Moreno Valley.

And in Minnesota, the first jury trial since the Covid-19 hiatus has resulted in quarantine for the Hennepin County district judge presiding over it, after a member of her staff tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Jury trials in Monterey County resumed on June 1 with new social distancing and safety protocols in place; jurors with health concerns who need to defer can learn more here.