Coronavirus infections rising at Manatee County jail. Seven inmates and six staffers infected
The number of coronavirus infections continues to grow at the Manatee County jail, with seven inmates and six staffers positive for the virus as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.
A total of 20 inmates and 27 correction employees at the Manatee County jail have tested positive since the COVID-19 pandemic started.
The sheriff’s office has a medical unit at the jail with negative pressurized cells where inmates who have the coronavirus can be isolated from others. On Monday, there were nine inmates in custody who were positive.
The sheriff’s office says it would house two positive inmates in each negative pressure cell if needed for a case “when both inmates test positive at the same time or they were already housed together when they became ill/ tested positive,” said sheriff’s office spokeswoman Melissa Conway.
Another part of the jail has also been reserved to house additional positive inmates should an outbreak grow larger.
Inmates are screened before they are booked into the jail outside in a sally port. They are placed in a “separation dorm” when they are booked and monitored for symptoms for 14 days before being moved into the general population, according to Conway.
On average, the Manatee County jail has about 800 inmates in its custody each day. There were 868 inmates in custody as of about noon on Tuesday.
Officials in Manatee County have acknowledged they have been fortunate that there has not been a massive outbreak of the potentially deadly virus at the Manatee County jail. Prisons and jails elsewhere in the state and across the country have struggled to contain the coronavirus.
Public health and infectious disease experts warned early on that because of the lack of social distancing in jails and prisons, there was the potential for the virus to rapidly spread behind bars.
To date, the Manatee County jail has tested 57 inmates for the coronavirus. Some of theose inmates have been tested multiple times.
“We do not have an exact number for the jail personnel tested because many of them haven’t had symptoms but have chosen to get tested on their own and do not report their negative results to us,” Conway told the Bradenton Herald. “Of course, we stress that if they feel ill at all, to stay home.”
At the Manatee Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Bradenton, there are currently are two staffers who have tested positive, according to the latest update from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice on Tuesday afternoon. One youth has also tested positive but has since been cleared and is no longer in isolation.
This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 10:40 AM.
