[UPDATE 7/29] According to the Sheriff's Department, three of the inmates who had tested positive were, upon retesting, found to be negative. The confusion was due to a lab error, and the Sheriff's Office was notified of the mistake by a third-party testing lab on July 28, according to a press release from the Sheriff's Office. The total number of inmates in the county jail who have tested positive for COVID-19 stands at nine.
[ORIGINAL STORY] The Sheriff’s Department has confirmed that there have been eight new cases of COVID-19 in the county jail: three staff members and five incarcerated individuals. Since the pandemic began in March, the Sheriff’s Department says that 33 staff members at the jail have tested positive, 22 of which have recovered and are back at work. However, through a combination of precautionary measures and good fortune, the facility has largely managed to avoid a widespread breakout of the virus among the jail’s incarcerated population. But now the number of positive tests among the jail’s population has doubled from five to 10, raising concerns about the possibility of a larger outbreak.
For the last several weeks, the Sheriff’s Department has been attempting to test everyone in the jail, both staff and prisoners. Of the three staff members who tested positive, one had routine contact with incarcerated individuals, and the other two worked in administrative roles that did not bring them into regular contact with the jail’s population, according to the Sheriff’s Department.