Council to begin meeting virtually as virus strikes
Houston City Council will go virtual beginning next week, Mayor Turner said Tuesday, a day after one of its 16 members tested positive for COVID-19.
Turner said the switch to virtual meetings would continue for at least two weeks. All visitors to City Hall will have to wear face coverings and, eventually, there will be temperature checks at entrances, the mayor said.
Council member Letitia Plummer tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday. She said she started experiencing symptoms last Thursday, a day after the most recent council meeting. Plummer is quarantining and recovering at home, and at least one other member has entered quarantine as a precaution.
The council has continued to meet in person at City Hall each week, though members generally are spread out around the dais, at the press tables, sometimes even in the audience seats. Most wear masks, but they frequently are in close proximity to one another.
Other governmental bodies have been meeting virtually for weeks. Harris County Commissioners Court has been conducting its lengthy meetings online for two months.
The mayor said he and some of his staff went to a Kelsey-Seybold clinic to be tested Tuesday.
“I feel fine, I feel great, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't be tested,” Turner
said.
Plummer’s staff also was getting tested Tuesday.
The city health department said it was investigating Plummer’s case to find out who she may have come in contact with, but it did not generally advise City Hall staffers to seek tests.
Employees were told to seek tests through their primary care physician and to reach out to the mayor’s office if they proved unable to get one via those means.