(CARMEL, Ind.) — Two Indianapolis-area city halls are shutting down because of the resurgence of the coronavirus.
Zionsville will close city hall to the public except by appointment — the city is urging people to do their business by phone or online. In Carmel, Mayor Jim Brainard says city employees will work from home as much as possible after four workers in the building tested positive. He says he’ll reevaluate whether to reopen in two weeks.
Carmel’s City Hall closed at the start of the pandemic and didn’t reopen till July. Brainard says the city instituted numerous precautions, including requiring masks, changing the ventilation system, screening workers and visitors on entry, and installing kickpads and hand-wave scanners to open doors. But Brainard says people still get infected when they go home to their families.
Carmel has also closed its household hazardous waste dropoff after workers there got sick.
Boone and Hamilton Counties are both averaging more than one new case per 500 people, with positivity rates over 8%. Both are scored as approaching high risk for spread of the virus on the Indiana State Department of Health’s weekly scoring system.
