Will County Worker Out With Coronavirus; 2 Judges Return

JOLIET - A Will County Circuit Clerk employee has tested positive for Coronavirus and is the fourth person connected to the courthouse to test positive.

"We've had one case and that was approximately two weeks ago," Chuck Squires, Chief Deputy with the Will County Circuit Clerk. "We anticipate she will be back next week."

The woman works in the finance department and, so far as further testing reveals, no other employees in the about 100 person office has caught the virus.

"As a result of her testing, we had eight people test and they all came back negative," Squires said.

The courthouse has been requiring masks and social distancing when possible. They have also increased the amount and kinds of cleaning and disinfecting.

"I think that has been beneficial because we have an office of 100 employees and that's the first case we have had," Squires said.

The woman does not believe she contracted the virus at work. This is the fourth diagnosis of someone connected to the courthouse.

In April, a Will County Courthouse Deputy was diagnosed with Coronavirus, but recovered and returned to work.

Between three and four weeks ago, two judges at the Will County Courthouse tested positive for Coronavirus, Chief Judge Richard Schoensted said. Although he declined to identify the judges, he did confirm that both are in the same division.

"We did some contact testing and everyone tested negative," Schoensted said of the action after the diagnosis.

Although the courthouse has opened up some areas, they are still way below the number of cases and visitors seen before March 2020.

"Before Covid, we had an average of 2,500 (members of the) public a day coming into the courthouse," Schoensted said. "A couple days after that, we went from 2,500 to 50."

The Will County Courthouse has never completely shut down. Squires estimates that about five courtrooms have remained active throughout the pandemic.

"It was emergency and then some," he said. "We never went below five courtrooms."

Family law, civil cases and some small claims cases were and are being heard, but the participants are attending remotely.

"Family and civil cases are doing work on video through streaming services," Schoensted said.

The Will County Courthouse began reopening on June 1, but is still way under the 2,500 members of the public per day it saw before Coronavirus.

"The number of the public coming into the courthouse is a very important number, at least for me," Schoensted said.

The average in mid-June is about 700 members of the public per day.

"We are always walking that fine line between safety and constitutionally necessary services," Schoensted said.

The Will County Circuit Clerk's office began to come back to work in person at the beginning of June, but were not back to the full 100 employees until after June 15.