A COVID-19 outbreak at the Lincoln County Jail discovered Saturday has spread to two more inmates and two jail staff, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday.
Six inmates in the Lincoln County Jail were put in an isolation unit Saturday after they tested positive for COVID-19. The outbreak led to coronavirus testing of the rest of the jail’s inmates and staff. No others came back positive.
The sheriff’s office said all 100 inmates and 15 staff were re-tested Wednesday, and four more cases were discovered — two inmates and two staff.
Sheriff Curtis Landers told county commissioners Monday that an inmate had COVID-19 symptoms Saturday and was given a “rapid” test that came back positive. He was taken to Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital as precaution and then returned to an isolation unit at the jail.
All the jail’s inmates were then given the rapid test, and five more came back positive. The six were then given a more sophisticated test that will take 2-3 days to get results.
While the jail is operating at less than capacity, Landers said two 8-man units are kept aside to use as isolation areas in case of an outbreak. The eight inmates are in those.
Landers said the sheriff’s office have been offering the Johnson & Johnson one-shot COVID-19 vaccine to inmates the past month and that 43 had received it. One of the six who tested positive had received a shot, but it was less than two weeks ago so it may not have been fully effective, said Florence Pourtal, deputy director of Lincoln County Public Health.
Landers said the inmates are being monitored regularly by a nurse, and the five inmates appeared to be asymptomatic, or showing no COVID-19 symptoms.
The sheriff’s office said later Monday in a news release that all precautionary measures and protocols remain in place for the jail – COVID testing for all inmates, daily temperature checks for inmates and staff, and mandatory face coverings and other precautions.