COVID-19 shutters two county offices

Two offices at the Shawano County Courthouse were temporarily closed on due to an outbreak of COVID-19, according to County Board Chairman Tom Kautza.

The county clerk’s office and maintenance department were closed after employees tested positive for the coronavirus.

“They’re working with the health department so all the rules and guidelines are followed,” Kautza said.

There has been no widespread testing of other employees in other departments as a result.

“That wasn’t what the health department recommended,” Kautza said.

“I don’t believe the exposure was necessarily in the courthouse,” he said. “It may have been from some other event or other. That’s up to the health department to find out with their contact tracing.”

Public Health Director Vicki Dantoin said the courthouse situation is not unusual.

“It’s kind of the same as what’s been going on around the county, and the numbers are significantly higher than they had been previously,” she said. “It’s bound to occur in some businesses.”

Dantoin added it’s not always the workplace where the virus is contracted.

“What people do in their personal lives is their business, and there can be exposure that way,” she said. “It’s not always exposure at the workplace, but they do occur, and there have been plenty of business in the county that have had COVID as well.”