Jefferson County, Alabama

News and Announcements

 

WHAT THE JEFFERSON COUNTY COMMISSION IS DOING TO PREPARE FOR THE CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19)
3/11/2020  

As Jefferson County has a newly confirmed cases of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus),  we wanted to provide you an update on what we are looking at regarding our employees and continuing operations.

  1. We are continuing to coordinate with the Jefferson County Department of Health and Emergency Management Agency.  These are the lead agencies in Jefferson County.  Internally we are also coordinating with the 10th Judicial Circuit, as they are the largest tenant of our facilities. The Alabama Supreme Court has suspended all court hearings, March 16 - April 16, except for trials already underway. If you have questions please contact the appropriate court: Birmingham Division, 325-5255/325-5355; Bessemer: 497-8510.
  2. The County Manager will be reviewing all pending travel by County employees.  Employees should check themselves for symptoms of acute respiratory illness before starting travel and notify their supervisor and stay home if they are sick.  If an employee becomes sick while traveling, they should notify their supervisor and promptly call a healthcare provider for advice if needed.
  3. If you are feeling sick, out of an abundance of caution, please stay home. We can’t stress enough the importance of this. Employees who have symptoms of acute respiratory illness are recommended to stay home and not come to work until they are free of fever (100.4° F [37.8° C] or greater using an oral thermometer), signs of a fever, and any other symptoms for at least 24 hours, without the use of fever-reducing or other symptom-altering medicines (e.g. cough suppressants). Employees should notify their supervisor and stay home if they are sick.
  4. Employees who are well, but have a sick family member at home with COVID-19 should notify their supervisor.
  5. The County is implementing additional cleaning measures focused around our public facing areas: entrances to courthouses, satellite offices and transactional counters.
  6. The Alabama Department of Health has published a hotline for questions: 1-888-264-2256. For testing locations in Jefferson County visit Assurancescientificlabs.com/coronavirus. Do NOT just show up at the ER or Doctors office. Call your health provider first!
  7. We are encouraging citizens to utilize online services wherever possible to reduce foot traffic in our facilities -- see links below.

 Know the facts.

There is a lot of misinformation on social media. Please make sure you are getting your information on this virus from credible sources. Below are links to the CDC website where you can find fact sheets on what the virus is and how it is spread. Remember and ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

a.      Wash your hands using soap and water for 20 seconds or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol.

b.      Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.

c.      Stay home when you are sick.

d.      Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.


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