The Calloway County attorney says his office’s work is impacted after two of his staff members tested positive for COVID-19.
Calloway County Attorney Bryan Ernstberger said one assistant county attorney tested positive early last week, which prompted the rest of the staff to get tests. Staff worked remotely until all received negative results that week. Ernstberger said a second assistant county attorney this week developed a fever and got tested, receiving positive results Thursday.
He said his staff is getting a second round of tests and again working remotely, with Ernstberger planning on closing his physical office at least through the end of next week. He believes any exposure to the community was minimal, due to the fact his office had only been accepting visitors through appointment only.
“The chance that someone has been infected by someone inside the office, should be very minimal,” said Ernstberger. “We just have had very limited contact with anyone outside the office.”
He said some work including cases of child support enforcement and open records requests could be impacted and see delays. Ernstberger added that child support cases can involve physical interaction with parents, with being unable to receive and review forms filled out by parents while working remotely. He also said he has less staff now to handle open records requests, with one of his assistant county attorneys usually in charge of responding to requests. He said his office has a total of 11 people.
“Open records requests are going to experience some delay. I’m still going to deal with them, and I’m still going to try to respond as quickly as I can,” said Ernstberger. “It’s more difficult to do that when I don’t have any help.”
Ernstberger said he expects his staff will receive another round of tests next week, depending on future test results. He said he will be responding to emails, but is unable to check his office’s voicemail inbox remotely.
