FAIRMONT — Martin County commissioners heard from Emergency Management director Abigail Nesbit and Faribault and Martin County Public Health sanitarian Tim Langer on Tuesday. The pair provided a brief update on the COVID-19 virus situation in the county.

“The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) updates their positive cases every day at noon, so at this point (Tuesday morning) we’re still at 54 confirmed cases with the closest being in Blue Earth and Waseca counties,” Nesbit said. “This morning there was something going around about a positive case in Martin County, but at this moment I would say that’s completely false.”

Langer reminded the board of the reason behind mandated and recommended closures.

“What we want to do is slow this virus down so we don’t have an upward exponential curve of illness,” he said. “Hospitals can only handle so many cases at a time, so what we want to do is flatten the curve, and that’s why we are taking these steps at the state level to slow things down.”

In keeping with measured responses, Martin County is encouraging the public to contact county offices by telephone or email, allowing employees who are able to work from home, and suspending all non-essential meetings and work-related travel. County-related communication and announcements will utilize email along with website and social media postings as a primary means of contact.

The COVID-19 virus is also affecting local court operations, as explained by County Attorney Terry Viesselman.

“Basically, the Supreme Court issued their order saying that only high-priority cases will be heard in court right now,” he said. “Child-support and adoption hearings have all been cancelled. Child protection ones won’t go forward either unless they’re emergency hearings and we have to grab a child from the home.”

Viesselman said there is no word yet on how long the situation will last.

Turning to another virus-related matter, Martin County Library director Jenny Trushenski sought and obtained approval from the board to close the library through the end of March.

“A lot of our fellow libraries in the region have closed,” she said.

“We are hoping that we can have a sort of curbside pick-up for the time being,” she added. “Staff will have the option to take paid time off or continue working. We can do some disinfecting as well as still trying to help people. Since it is a fluid situation, we will have to see if things change and address that accordingly.”

Library patrons are encouraged not to return library items until the library reopens. The library does not impose late fees, and Trushenski noted that no bills/fines will be assessed at this time.