New covid cases force 2 Westmoreland County courthouse offices to close

Two Westmoreland County Courthouse offices were shut down Friday as the coronavirus continues to surge.

The Register of Wills Office, which processes estate documents and marriage licenses, was closed on the courthouse’s third floor along with the Public Defender’s Office on the fourth floor after staffers tested positive for the virus.

Officials have been dealing with a substantial spread of the virus through the government’s workforce for most of the last month and have seen cases steadily grow over the last several weeks.

County commissioners announced this week that elected officials in charge of various offices throughout the government have the discretion to reduce services to slow community spread of the coronavirus in the courthouse. Several offices, including the Clerk of Courts, Prothonotary and Recorder of Deeds, have been closed to walk-in service and are available only by appointments.

Register of Wills Sherry Magretti Hamilton said her office would remain open. That office was open Thursday and is expected to reopen to the public on Monday, officials said.

Since the onset of the pandemic, various county offices were closed periodically after an employee tested positive for the virus. The commissioners office was shuttered for about a week earlier this fall after Commissioner Doug Chew contracted the coronavirus.

Commissioners said the growing number of cases in county government started in November when an outbreak in the Elections Bureau slowed the counting of votes and impacted nearly every employee in the department. Temporary workers assigned to assist the elections bureau over the last month potentially spread the virus to other courthouse offices, officials said.

County policy requires each office where a case was reported to be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized before it can reopen.

The courthouse remained open on Friday. Two judges conducted criminal court hearings and other administrative offices were open to the public.

Criminal trials scheduled for next week were postponed.

Commissioners last spring hired a private nursing company to take temperatures of all employees and members of the public who entered the courthouse. As the number of coronavirus cases fell over over the summer the temperature checks were halted. That diagnostic effort was resumed this fall and is now conducted by park police officers at the three public entrances to the courthouse complex.