Sacramento courts to begin temperature checks. Face covering mandate to follow
Got a fever? Stay home.
That’s the message from Sacramento courts officials who say, starting Friday, people entering Sacramento County’s courthouses will have their temperatures checked at security gates in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Anyone registering a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher, or who refuses a temperature screening will be turned away.
The order Thursday by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Russell Hom comes as the Sacramento courts begin to expand services following weeks of near-dormancy to slow the spread of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.
“It is necessary to ensure that our employees, justice partners and the public are not entering a court facility with a high fever,” courts officials said in a news release.
Starting Monday, face coverings will be required to enter courthouses in Sacramento County and anyone who fails to wear the face protection will be barred from entering.
Though officials conceded the measures may be seen as inconvenient or uncomfortable, they said the measures would not be required “but for the continuing serious health risk from COVID-19.”
California had more than 73,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including more than 3,000 deaths, as of Thursday afternoon, according to the COVID Tracking Project and Johns Hopkins University. Nearly 1,200 of those cases are in Sacramento County, including 54 fatalities, according to Sacramento County Public Health figures.
Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office court security will screen courthouse employees and anyone else wanting to pass through security entrances daily. Those who use the courts but do not need to go through security screenings will not be screened, Hom’s order read.
At downtown Sacramento’s Gordon Schaber Courthouse, all boxes, including criminal, civil and attorney, will be moved to make more space for screenings.
Sacramento Superior Court has instituted a number of measures to lessen the risk of contracting coronavirus in courtrooms and courts facilities, including conducting video arraignments and other hearings of in-custody defendants.
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