WALTHALL — Webster is now among counties with at least one case of COVID-19 and local officials have taken preventive measures in response to the virus outbreak.
The Webster County Board of Supervisors first discussed the pandemic during a recessed meeting on March 16.
Department of Human Services County Director Annie Patterson asked if the county could supply the Eupora office with such items as hand sanitizer, gloves, cleaning supplies and disinfectants during the crisis. Referring to the lack of such items locally and emergency declarations at the federal and state levels, supervisors recommended she ask state DHS officials if government funding was available to purchase such supplies. The board did agree to send courthouse custodian LaVon Manuel to the DHS building in Eupora to thoroughly clean and disinfect it that morning.
Circuit Clerk Sherry Henderson also outlined Mississippi Supreme Court orders for the state’s courts in light of the coronavirus. Courts are required to stay open and operational but are allowed by continue cases and introduce other measures to curtail the spread of the virus.
Emergency
meetings
The board took no formal action regarding the situation and recessed until its end-of-month meeting on March 31. The next day, however, board President Pat Cummings called an emergency meeting for March 18 to address the emergencies arising as a result of epidemic conditions of COVID-19, a highly infectious respiratory disease caused by a new coronavirus.
Webster County Emergency Management Agency Director Barry Rushing addressed supervisors during the meeting, along with Tom Booth, EMA director and assistant fire chief for the town of Mathiston. The board also consulted by phone with Mississippi Emergency Management Agency Area Coordinators Tracy Pharr.
Supervisors subsequently issued a proclamation of the existence of a local emergency because of the COVID-19 pandemic and a resolution declaring that an emergency does exist throughout the county. All supervisors signed both documents.
The resolution requested that Gov. Tate Reeves proclaim that Webster County is in a state of emergency and designated Rushing as the authorized representative of the county for the purpose of obtaining available state and federal assistance.
President Donald Trump declared the virus a national emergency the week before and Reeves declared a state of emergency for Mississippi on March 14. The latter declaration enables the Mississippi State Department of Health and MEMA to ramp up coordination among all state and local agencies, and enables them to fast-track coordination at all levels of government in Mississippi.
County’s reaction
The board again recessed until March 31, but the evolving dynamics and need to put other measures in place changed those plans. Cummings called another emergency meeting for Friday afternoon, which was held just hours after MSDH reported one positive case of COVID-19 in Webster County.
The meeting in the large courtroom included general discussion among the 16 people present concerning the coronavirus and the county’s reaction to it. “We need to focus on what we can do to protect the people of Webster County and our people (county employees),” Cummings said.
Referring to the confirmed case of the virus in the county, Rushing reiterated the need for people to practice good hygiene, keep everything clean and practice social distancing. He also discussed the planned distribution of supplies to healthcare facilities and county agencies. MEMA announced later Friday that the agency, along with the state Health Department, would begin distributing vital supplies of personal protective equipment to counties across the state Saturday (March 21).
Local healthcare facilities and emergency management agencies were to receive these shipments throughout the day on Saturday. The stockpile is a combination of what the state currently has plus what Mississippi received last week from the Department of Health and Human Services’ national stockpile.
Stephanie Galloway, director of clinical quality and safety at North Mississippi Medical Center-Eupora, addressed the board at length and answered various questions.
She discussed precautionary measures being taken at the hospital and Eupora Family Medical Clinic in screening people before they can enter the facilities, and reviewed the new policy restricting visitation and congregation of people at the hospital.
Galloway said testing is not available here and one must be referred by a doctor to be tested after meeting certain criteria. MSDH has since released a list of COVID-19 testing sites throughout the state, with the nearest being Lee/Med Plus Urgent Care in Tupelo. Residents are asked to call the facility before coming in for possible testing, according to the department. A fever of 100.4 and severe cough or chest pain is required to receive testing.
Cummings told Galloway the board was available to help if needed and District 4 Supervisor Paul Crowley stressed the need to communicate with each other on a regular basis.
Tax Assessor-Collector Barbara Gore, citing the large number of people that come into her office daily, said, “Every person with the exception of one (entering the courthouse) has come into the tax office (today). “We’re scared. … We’ve seen about 30 people today and have no idea if they have symptoms.”
Deputy Circuit Clerk Wanda Robinson said she felt the same way as Gore, with both asking if a Plexiglas barrier could be placed between employees and customers in their offices.
They and others did agree that any business which could be completed by phone should be. This has been made easier because county offices can now accept credit card payments. Phone numbers for the courthouse offices are also posted on the front door.
Measures approved
The board eventually approved a motion formally addressing precautionary measures to be taken at the courthouse, Justice Court office in Eupora and the Webster County 911 Center in Mathiston. The motion called for these steps to be taken because of the spreading of the coronavirus:
• to rotate the Justice Court clerk and deputy clerk, with each to work one day on and one day off beginning Tuesday. Cummings later said this was also going to be done in the circuit clerk’s office.
• to close the west end of the courthouse with the only access to the building being through the east front door. A deputy will be posted at the front door and he is situated to allow only one “customer” in the building at any time. A cleaning station consisting of hand sanitizer and gloves will be at the front door and all outside people will be required to use the cleaning station.
• to close the E-911 building to all people except those who work there. No visitors are to be allowed.
Entry to the courthouse was already limited to the front door before the meeting and a deputy was posted just inside at a cleaning station. Some of those in the meeting noted that a sign already posted on the door stated only one customer “per office” at a time, but the board stuck with its decision to allow only one customer in the entire building at a time.
The meeting concluded with board recessing until 8:30 a.m. March 31.
No additional cases of COVID-19 had been reported in Webster County as of Monday. In a release that day, MSDH said it will no longer provide statistics on the virus county-by-county, instead opting for an aggregate state total, which stood at 249 (including the death of a Hancock County man) as of Monday.
More details of Mississippi cases, along with preventive steps to take against COVID-19, are online at HealthyMS.com/covid-19.
