LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — An employee at The Clark County Department of Family Services has tested positive for coronavirus and a second employee may have been exposed as well. The Department building in question is on South Martin Luther King Boulevard.
According to a county spokesperson, the infected worker is in the hospital. The second employee was told they may have been at high risk for exposure, so that person is self-quarantining but has not yet tested positive for COVID-19.
The Department of Family Services (DFS) is a local child welfare agency that works to protect kids from abuse and neglect. That could mean supporting families so they stay together when possible or providing permanent new families for kids when families can't be kept together.
A lot of kids and families come through the DFS building on a daily basis, but clark county officials say the two employees in question did not come in contact with any kids or families that interact with the department.
The DFS building will be professionally sanitized before it reopens. In the meantime, everyone who normally works inside the building has been told to work from home, operating everything remotely, including the child abuse and neglect hotline, which is available 24/7 in case of emergencies.
Here is the official statement from the Clark County Department of Family Services:
"We have been advised by the Southern Nevada Health District that an employee has tested positive for COVID-19. That employee is currently hospitalized. One additional employee has been advised of being potentially at high risk of exposure. That second employee has been directed to self-quarantine. Neither employee came in contact with children or families that interact with the department. As a precautionary measure, the employees at the affected facility have been directed to work remotely. A professional will fully sanitize the facility and it will be reopened to limited staff supporting the essential functions of the department and its Child Abuse and Neglect hotline. The hotline is currently operating from a secondary location."
