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Lexington County reopens facility with several safety precautions

People who enter the administration building will have their temperatures checked. The county has also set up markings to promote social distancing.
Credit: WLTX

LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. — The County of Lexington has reopened their administration building to the public while putting several safety measures in place due to the coronavirus.

Many facilities in the Midlands and across the country have closed their doors or operated in a different capacity to help limit the spread of COVID-19.

Recently the administration building for Lexington County has been closed and only allowed access to employees because of COVID-19. Employees were helping residents by allowing folks to get things accomplished through their online portal and over the phone.

People were also able to leave tax payments and documents in a drop-off located right outside the building.

Officials decided to reopen the administration building to the public starting Thursday, June 11th. They attribute reopening to direction from DHEC and as well as orders from Governor McMaster.

"The public is going to be able and come in here and access floors one through four," said Harrison Cahill with the county.

County of Lexington officials have reopened portions of the County's Administration building to the general public and are continuing to monitor the...

While people are now able to go into the building, several precautions have been put in place to help protect the community and the employees from the coroanvirus.

"That includes measures to promote social distancing, a temperature check station that you'll see in here which will soon be placed in all county facilities where the public will enter. That's primarily to protect the public and our county staff as well," explained Cahill.

Temporary paint has been put on the sidewalk to help organize lines to different departments and to help with social distancing. There's other signs inside the building to help people navigate through the building.

While it's not required to a mask, the county is strongly encouraging folks to do so.

There's also protective barriers that have been set up in almost all public spaces.

RELATED: Lexington County giving free thermometers to help local businesses

"The county is always open Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm. Right now we're actually only allowing the public into the building between 9 am and 4 pm. Those two-hour buffer times are going to give us time to actually make sure that public spaces and public areas where our employees and the public may encounter each other or exchange documents and that sort of thing, get really cleaned out."

RELATED: Lexington County named a coronavirus hot spot in South Carolina

"Here in Lexington County, we are one of the higher zones where coronavirus is being reported. We feel as a county organization to continue to provide those high quality of services to our residents, that we make sure that these measures are taken care of in terms of monitoring temperatures of people who come into our building."

Employees are also being asked to check their temperatures at home before coming into the building for work.

"This is just one of those measures that we just want to make sure that our residents know we're taking to protect them and to protect county staff during this pandemic."

The county is still asking folks to use their online portals if they are doing business with the county. That online source can be found at www.lex-co.sc.gov. People can also call the departments if folks don't feel comfortable enough to come inside the building as of yet.

If folks need accommodations inside the building to get from one place to another, the county says they will provide that.

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