Stewart Detention Center employees, ICE detainees monitored for COVID-19 after positive case
An employee at a south Georgia immigration detention center has tested positive for COVID-19.
The individual, an employee of Stewart Detention Center, run by Nashville-based CoreCivic, last worked there on March 20, according to CoreCivic spokesperson Ryan Gustin. The unidentified person is now isolated at home.
Efforts are underway to notify other employees or contractors who may have been in contact with the individual who tested positive. Nine employees who are known to have had direct contact with the individual have been directed to self-quarantine at home for 14 days, as recommended by the CDC.
No ICE detainees have tested positive at the Stewart Detention Center, according to ICE spokesperson Lindsay Williams. Approximately 30 detainees out of the 1,500 in custody at the center have been placed in a medical cohort for monitoring.
“Medical cohorts have been put into place at multiple facilities to stem potential spread so that is not a unique step,” Williams told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email. “As for why medical cohorts would be in place, it’s in accordance with CDC criteria for risk of exposure. It is important to note a cohort does not mean persons have been exposed.”
The center has a capacity for 1,900 detainees, and has detained people from more than 140 counties and nearly every continent, the AJC reports.
Georgia has more than 4,100 cases of COVID-19 as of 7 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Department of Public Health.
The state health department reports 885 people have been hospitalized due to the virus.
