The Yolo County Courthouse in Woodland, where large groups of people gather each day for matters such as jury duty and court appearances, has developed a three-level plan for addressing the coronavirus outbreak.
“We are currently at Level One,” Court Executive Officer Shawn Landry said in an email to The Davis Enterprise. “The list is not comprehensive and subject to change.”
Practices that have already been implemented include:
• Encourage social distancing, avoid touching faces and provide links to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)/Yolo County Health and Human Services websites.
• Hand sanitation and deployment of sanitizers and tissues in all staff and public areas.
• Displayed and posted best practices for washing to prevent spread of germs from the CDC. These are posted in all restrooms and common areas of the courthouse.
• Encourage staff to stay home when sick (developed FAQs).
• Re-examine janitorial supply list to ensure products are on approved list to help prevent spread of COVID-19, specifically.
• Eliminate all staff travel for training and/or conferences.
• Implement jury staff to accept all postponement requests where possible.
• Developed special COVID-19 link on website that encourages online payments, phone options, jury duty rescheduling number, telephonic appearance requests and self-help remote assistance via email.
Further actions that could be taken in the event of a level 2 or 3 response to the outbreak include reducing court calendars to essential matters only, electronic submission of warrants by law-enforcement agencies, closure of the court’s self-help center and, in the most extreme case, closure of the courthouse, according to Landry.