Second courthouse worker tests positive

Another Ottawa courthouse employee has tested positive for COVID-19.

The courthouse employee, who does not work for the Ministry of the Attorney General, got tested as a precaution after reading an Oct. 5 memo about another employee who tested positive. The person was asymptomatic, and remains so.

The employee was last at the Elgin Street courthouse on Oct. 2. In a precautionary measure that has been praised in courthouse circles, the test was conducted on Oct. 9, and the positive result came in on Oct. 11. Both courthouse employees remain in self-isolation on the advice of Ottawa Public Health.

It appears that the cases are not linked, court-operations manager Danielle Dell'Elce said in a memo.

“Ottawa Public Health has indicated that they cannot confirm any link between this case and the first positive case that I reported to you on October 5th. Public Health advised that neither person identified as having been in close contact with the other.

“The building tenant has also confirmed that while in the courthouse, the individual adhered to infection control protocols, including physical distancing and wearing a face covering,” Dell'Elce wrote.

She also said that Ottawa Public Health has advised “that no additional measures to prevent transmission are required at the courthouse.”

Ottawa Public Health is helping management with contact tracing, and Dell'Elce noted that the courthouse now gets “enhanced cleaning on a regular basis.”

In March, the Defence Counsel Association of Ottawa — noting exceptional times and a dirty courthouse — told its members they should refuse all in-court hearings that can't be done remotely in an effort to “flatten the curve” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are willing to take extreme steps to protect the rights of accused persons. But we cannot be forced to choose between public health and fundamental legal rights,” the defence counsel association said in the March statement.

At the time, the defence lawyers' association said the courthouse was not being cleaned properly.