Havre de Grace Mayor William T. Martin, as well as a member of his staff, have tested positive for COVID-19, the city announced recently.
“My own diagnosis reinforces the fact that COVID-19 is here in Havre de Grace,” Martin said in a statement posted on the city website. “Even with the best precautions, we are all vulnerable to it.”
The City Council meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight is still happening, with Council President David Glenn presiding. The gathering includes a public hearing on ordinances related to establishing adequate public facilities standards for development in the city and the annexation of two parcels at 1748 Pulaski Highway. The meeting will be livestreamed online.
City Hall at 711 Pennington Ave. was cleaned “from top to bottom” by a crew Saturday, and about eight employees are working from home following the completion of contract tracing protocols, according to Glenn.
“Hopefully, we caught it early enough across the board,” he said Monday.
People can visit City Hall if they need to conduct business such as paying a utility bill. Glenn encouraged using alternatives to coming to the building in person, if possible, “just to be on the safe side.”
The diagnoses were announced last Thursday, Aug. 13, after the mayor and several other city officials visited Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen Aug. 11 to get tested for the novel coronavirus. They were among more than 700 people who were tested in the drive-through center set up in the stadium parking lot and administered by the state, the Harford County Health Department and University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health.
“They were able to see us right away and I got my results back in 24 hours,” Martin said Monday. “We were able to take quick action at City Hall the following day.”
The mayor declined to identify the staffer who also tested positive for COVID-19, out of respect for the person’s privacy, although he noted the person is “an important member of the administrative staff.”
Martin said he announced his condition because he wants residents to know that the coronavirus is “real — it’s in Havre de Grace, and these CDC guidelines are there for a reason,” referring to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for preventing the spread of the disease.
The mayor, who is working from home, said he and the staffer are doing well. Martin said he experienced mild symptoms, such as losing his senses of taste and smell, and headaches. He has not had headaches for a few days, and his senses returned Sunday, he said.
Martin said he got tested “as a precautionary measure” after the staffer began showing symptoms of COVID-19. City employees who had contact with the mayor or staff member are now working from home, and most are still waiting for their test results.
Employees who learned, through contract tracing, that they did not have any potential exposure to the disease are working and keeping the day-to-day operations of City Hall running.
“We’re pretty confident that City Hall is a safe environment right now,” said Martin, who also reported that his wife has tested negative, and that she and their children are not showing any symptoms as of Monday.
The mayor and council president praised how the city put in place a response plan should anyone in the municipal government test positive for COVID-19. Martin said Christopher Ricci, the city’s human resources officer, “did a phenomenal job” of implementing the plan, which allowed government operations to continue following the positive tests last week.
Martin noted the irony of him and his staffer being diagnosed with COVID-19 as city leaders prepare to launch a campaign promoting taking steps such as wearing a mask, social distancing and washing hands to prevent the spread of the disease. The campaign comes as Gov. Larry Hogan tightened requirements on wearing masks indoors as well as outdoors when it is not possible to maintain social distance, and as the number of positive cases increases in the Havre de Grace-area 21078 ZIP code.
There were 115 confirmed cases in the 21078 ZIP code as of Monday, according to the state’s coronavirus website. Harford County had 2,167 cases overall, along with 66 deaths, according to the site.
“I just want people to know that it’s real, and it’s in Havre de Grace,” Martin said.
Glenn encouraged people to be safe, wear masks, “and last but not least, don’t be complacent” about COVID-19.