By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                Just when you thought COVID-19 was a thing of the past, the virus is making another unwelcome appearance in Levy County.

            Williston reported Monday that eight employees in Williston City Hall tested positive for the virus, resulting in changes to the way people enter the building.

            The city has gone back to a procedure used in a previous outbreak where residents must call or knock on the front door to gain entry.

            “On Monday, we started with three cases of COVID and by the end of the day we had eight,” said City Council President Debra Jones. “That’s why our doors are closed again. We’ve been hard hit with that again.”

            Jones said City Hall’s doors aren’t “closed, closed.” It’s just when people walk to the front door, they must knock or call to gain entry. An employee will allow them to enter.

            “Over the weekend we began hearing that people were sick. On Monday morning we tallied three. By the end of the day, we had eight positive cases. That’s not counting their families. That’s just employees. Some of their families had it too,” Jones said.

            Jones said City Clerk Latricia Wright was asked to test employees. She had been trained by the Marion County Health Department to be a voluntary tester for them.

            “The fact that she was certified as a tester, the Levy County Department of Health actually gave the City of Williston 120 test kits,” Jones said. “We have been testing everybody we thought was sick or wanted a test. It has helped a lot to curtail it and get people sent home.”

            COVID-19 was first reported in the United States in January of 2020. At one point the national economy was all but shut down on the advice of federal health officials. Store shelves were empty. People were urged to stay at home.

                The Florida economy is wide open now. People are moving around freely, working at their jobs, schools are open and it’s a much brighter scenario, thanks to widespread vaccinations, the arrival of the lifesaving Monoclonal Antibody therapy to treat victims of the virus, and the economic and political leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature to keep the economy open.

            Stay tuned.

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Enterprise Reporting by Terry Witt January 17, 2022; Posted January 17, 2022