The Delaware County Board of Commissioners today declared a state of emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and adopted a Temporary COVID-19 Emergency Operations Plan, which becomes effective at 8 a.m., Friday, March 20, and continues through April 5. This act enables the county to exercise certain powers not permitted during normal circumstances.

“We had already taken many proactive measures to limit the exposure of our employees and the public to this virus,” said County Administrator Michael Frommer, “and we were pleased to see a more than an 80 percent reduction in the number of daily visitors to our Courthouse from the beginning of March and a 60 percent reduction in visitors to the Hayes Administrative Building, but now we need to do more.”

Frommer said that taking these additional steps, which include restricting public access to all county government buildings except the Courthouse and having non-required personnel work from home, will further the county’s goal of helping to “flatten the curve” of the virus’s spread in Delaware County’s 217,000-resident population. The county’s judges have authority over the Courthouse. As of today, the Delaware General Health District has announced there have been two confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county, both travel-related.

“We have been steadfast in our goal of protecting our employees and the public while maintaining essential county function,” Frommer added. “And the sooner we can slow down the spread of this disease, the sooner we can get all our lives back to normal.”

Among the changes to current operations that were authorized by the Commissioners include:

  • Cancellation of Commissioner sessions on March 23, March 30. The next sessions will be held March 26, April 2 and April 13. Sessions on April 6 and April 9 had been cancelled previously.
  • Removal of public comment from session agendas. Because public access to the Commissioners’ Building will be restricted, the public is encouraged to instead watch sessions on the county’s livestream transmission online at https://co.delaware.oh.us/media-room/video/. Public comments can be submitted via email, mail or phone. For contact information, go to: https://co.delaware.oh.us/commissioners/.

For detailed information about Delaware County’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including updates on individual offices’ and departments’ continued operations, go to: https://co.delaware.oh.us/covid-19-information/.