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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
March 5, 2020     Shelton Mason County Journal
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March 5, 2020
 
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Jo Thursday, March 5, 2020 7 "We’re assuming it’s already in the community’ prepares for ' (OVID- 79, Health into action By Michael Heinbach michae/@masoncounty. com Mason County Community Services Director Dave Windom is helping form the community’s preparations for the‘ . global outbreak of CQVID-19, the dis- ease caused by the novel coronavirus. On Tuesday 1 morning at com- mission chambers in - Shelton, Win- dom spoke to a gathering of Mason County govern- ment department heads and officials to outline Mason County Pub- lic Health’s plans to combat the possible spread of the new ‘virus, thought to have initially spread through person-to-person contact in China. “As of Friday, we’ve set up‘an inci— dent command system through Pub- lic Health, and starting Monday, we Windom started doing daily updates at 8:30 . in the morning, and we’re roughly holding those until this thing scales back down,” Windom told county of- ficials. SHELTON-MASON couer elected 8-85 5—15 urnal The Voice of Mason County Since 1886 — Vol. 134, No. 10 OFFICIALS GEAR UP FOR COROVNAVIRUS He went onto add the county has a I —* supply of 5,000 respiratory masks, and that’Maso'n County Public Health Of- ficer Dr. Daniel Stein is on call, avail- able by phone, text and email. Windom told those gathered his incident command team —— composed of Stein, county Community and Fam- ily Health Manager Lydia Buchheit, Environmental Health Manager Alex Paysse, Public Health Finance Manag- er Casey Bingham, Permit Assistance Center Manager Kristopher Nelsen and Public Health Clerk Sunni Evans — in order to be best prepared is act- ing on the presumption that the virus has spread to Mason County, though no confirmed local cases were reported as of Tuesday evening. , “We’re assuming, and this is 'for planning purposes, but we’re assum- ing it’s already in the community,” Windom said. “We assume that the first diagnosed case (locally) will‘ s. a. .vfigirifihh ._ ,___... sun, is 7,...“ 7., see COUNTY, page A-12 ABOVE: Jessica Thomas, a custodian for the Shelton School District, 'sCrubs walls Tuesday morning inside M6untain \fiew Elementary School. The Shelton School District closed the school for the day for a thorough cleaning after learning a staff member's spouse was a responder to the Life Care Center in Kirkand. Seven people linked to the nursing facility have died in the COVlD-19 outbreak, and the responder is under quarantine. BELOW: Mountain Wew Elementary School Principal Mary Johnson tells students the school is closed for the day. Journal photos by Gordon Weeks “We could have just done a surface'clean but if we’re going to do it, let’sdo it right.” Maiy Johnson, Mountain View Elementary School principal *ii’iliii’ WWCAR-RT LOT“C 005 SMALL TOWN PAPERS 927 W RATLROAD AVE SHELTON WA, 985843847 $1.50 ‘ Virus threotprompts 7—day Mountain View Elementary School closure By Gordon Weeks» gordon@masoncounty.com Mountain View Elementary School in Shelton was closed and cleaned Tuesday after the Shelton School Dis- trict learned a staff member’s husband . was an emergency responder to. CO- VID-19 victims at Life Care Center in Kirkland, where seven people had died from the outbreak as of Wednesday. The school reopened Wednesday morning. The Mary M. Knight School District also cleaned its elementary school building Mondayand Tuesday after learning a staff member had been in contact with her daughter who works at Mountain View Elementary and whose husband was a first responder in Kirkland. That staff member has been quarantined at her house despite showing no symptoms, the district stated in a letter to parents and staff. On Tuesday afternoon, Mason County health officials provided up- dates and advice on facing the out- break to about 60 administrators and teachers from throughout Mason County in a classroom at Olympic Middle School. No cases of COVID—19 have been re- ported in Mason County as of Wednes- day morning. “We’re just filled with uncertainty,” Mountain View Elementary Principal Mary Johnson said Tuesday morning in front of the school. “I think it’s im— portant we take every precaution we can take. .There’s nothing more im- portant than our students’ and staffs healt .” Word of the school closure went out on social media, including the school’s Facebook page and on the school dis- trict website. The message was read and heard: only three of the school’s 547 students Ishowed up at the door without receiving the closure message, Johnson said. “I’m impressed with the community’s support of the decisions we made Almost everyone has been wonderfully understanding on what we’re doing,” she said. The cleaning began as soon as see SCHOOLS, page A-13 ' INSIDE TODAY "53263 00111 Mason Healthunveils new.,Shelton clinic Page A-2 North Mason superintendent finalist for new job Page A—21 Shelton High School football coach resigns Page B—1