SE Twin Cities

The current number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Le Sueur County stands at 11, but even before the first confirmed case of COVID-19 emerged on March 22, local officials began measures to lessen the impact.

On March 18, the Le Sueur County Board of Commissioners declared a state of emergency. By March 29, another 10 confirmed cases emerged, though no Le Sueur cases have resulted in hospitalizations so far.

The order from the commissioners closed all public-facing services at the county courthouse, justice center, Environmental Services and the Highway Department. Department heads were instructed to find ways to continue services without interacting face-to-face with the public.

The order gave an exception for the County Sheriff’s Office, where residents may still go for permit applications and necessary correspondence.

”We have not taken this decision lightly and understand the hardship this creates for our customers, clients and residents,” County Administrator Darrell Pettis said in a press release.

The order came after the commissioners received warnings from County Public Health Director Cindy Shaughnessy at their March 17 meeting.

“Most of us here, if we get COVID-19, we will recover,” Shaughnessy said. “But our folks with underlying health conditions have much more severe consequences. So we really want to protect all those people.”

The County Jail has also restricted access and stopped work-release programs that would permit inmates to leave the jail and return.

“We are basically on total lockdown,” said Mitch Overn, the Le Sueur County Jail administrator.

The jail is also refusing inmates from other facilities who have been incarcerated for fewer than two weeks.

In an effort to keep the relatively low jail population as low as possible, the jail also released two minimum-security, nonviolent inmates. They are attempting to prevent bringing in any additional low-risk offenders.

“Our lesser offenses, such as driving after suspension, we’re not bringing them to jail and are instead giving them their summons at the scene,” Overn said. “In the case of a first-time DWI, instead of bringing them in, we are finding a sober person to take them home, which isn’t completely out of the ordinary.”

In a March 29 update for Le Sueur County, Shaughnessy cautioned residents to remember that the actual number of infected individuals is not known, and may be higher than the 11 confirmed cases.