Bug closure extended at B’klyn’s Fed Court
Brooklyn Federal Court will remain closed until at least Thursday as officials attempt to trace a coronavirus outbreak that has left five court security officers sickened with the virus, a courthouse source told the Daily News.
The building was ordered closed Friday — to potentially reopen Tuesday — after three court security officers tested positive last week, The News reported. But the courthouse will stay shut at least one more day while it undergoes “enhanced cleaning” in affected areas.
“The outbreak appears to be limited to a small number of individuals who worked with one another, all of whom are doing well at last report,” reads an email sent out to lawyers who work in the building and obtained by The News.
“We have implemented our contact tracing protocol, and notification has been and will continue to be made to anyone identified through contact tracing who may have had a close contact.”
A courthouse source with knowledge of the situation said the outbreak had grown from three COVID-19 positive security officers to five over the long weekend. It was not immediately clear if any prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges or other courthouse staff had contracted the virus.
The court continues to hear cases remotely.
There are currently no sick federal defenders in the Brooklyn office, according to Deirdre Von Dornum, the attorney in charge of the group that represents defendants in the courthouse who can’t afford a lawyer.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York declined to comment on whether there were any federal prosecutors who tested positive for COVID-19 in Brooklyn, or if any prosecutors were quarantined due to the outbreak.