A dozen Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, county, and medical contract employees are under self-isolation in their homes after potential exposure to a civilian Sheriff’s Office employee who tested positive for COVID-19. The statement released Tuesday evening described the employee as a resident of San Luis Obispo County who worked in the main jail’s control room and fell sick at work after returning from a trip to Europe. The employee tested positive for COVID-19. None of the 12 employees who interacted with the individual are, as of now, experiencing symptoms.
A second exposure occurred in a courtroom in Santa Maria. An attorney from San Luis Obispo County became ill after working in the court last Thursday and tested positive for COVID-19. Both his inmate client and his client's cellmate were placed in a negative-pressure location. They and a bailiff in the courtroom are asymptomatic so far. The two inmates are monitored by jail staff, and the bailiff is under self-quarantine. Others in the courtroom were told by the court to seek their own medical evaluation.
The incidents highlight rising concern across the country regarding the vulnerability of the U.S. prison population to the spread of COVID-19. “We are painfully aware that the close quarters of a jail environment pose significant challenges to a response for an illness such as COVID-19,” said Vincent Wasilewski, chief custody deputy for the Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office said it has stepped up sanitation efforts at the jail and tried to be proactive. “We began using the CDC screening model [questions regarding travel, known contact with a positive case, and taking their temperature] for the past several weeks,” said Wasilewski.