Warren Mayor Jim Fouts has closed city hall after a number of employees there tested positive for COVID-19, along with several police officers and district court staff.
"We're taking every possible precaution because it's important," says Fouts. "We don't want it to spread, we don't want any of our valued employees to get sick, and we don't want of the people who come to city hall to get sick."
Fouts says one staff member is currently in the hospital on a ventilator.
"They tried to get him off of it," he says. "But when they get him off of it, his oxygen level goes down. And he's relatively young, he's only about 50."
Fouts says the city is doing contact tracing and asking employees who were in close contact with someone who tested positive to quarantine at home.
He says he won't re-open city hall until the public health data indicate it's safe to do so.
