Orleans has first confirmed case of coronavirus

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 19 March 2020 at 4:38 pm

County departments available by appointment only

ALBION – Orleans County officials announced today at 4 p.m. that the county has its first confirmed case of coronavirus.

The person who tested positive for the virus is older than 60 and lives on the western end of the county, said Paul Pettit, Public Health director for Orleans and Genesee counties.

The person actually is currently out of state. That person likely contracted the virus in Orleans and then went out of state for a trip, where the person then developed symptoms for a respiratory infection.

The Health Department is working to identify people who may have been in close contact with the person. Pettit said those people should be contacted to see if they have developed symptoms. They may be put in a precautionary quarantine if they have no symptoms.

If they have symptoms, they will be in mandatory quarantine with the Health Department visiting them once daily and also calling them each day. People in quarantine are staying out of the public and checking their temperature and monitoring for symptoms.

With conformation of the coronavirus in Orleans County, all county office buildings are closed to the public, with service by appointment only.

“Over the past two weeks, COVID-19 has evolved rapidly,” said Legislature Chairwoman Lynne Johnson. “Orleans County has one confirmed case. With this in mind and after discussion with Paul Pettit, Director of the Genesee and Orleans County Health Departments, we are closing all County Office Buildings to the public effective immediately.

“Therefore all of our Departments are open for business by telephone and by appointment. Departments will still service the public’s needs by appointment during normal business hours. We understand this may be challenging for some people, however out of an abundance of caution, we need to take this action. We have set up drop boxes at several of our office buildings to accommodate the need to drop off documents.

“Of course, these documents could be sent directly to the department using the postal service. We continuously are looking at our operations to meet the needs of the public as we are determined to provide the best course of action for everyone’s health and safety.”

State agencies have changed standards this week to move away from face-to-face appointments to allow for interviews by phone in many cases. The current need for social distancing for the public’s safety is a high priority and the County is working to deliver services to our residents as safely as possible, Johnson said.

Here are the contact numbers for each office building:

Clerk’s Building

County Clerk: (585) 589-5334

Real Property: (585) 589-5400

County Office Building

DMV: (585) 589-3214

Elections: (585) 589-3274

Job Development: (585) 589-2772

Legislature: (585) 589-7053

Office for the Aging: (585) 589-3191

Personnel and Self Insurance: (585) 589-3186

Planning and Development: (585) 589-3198