2 Muscogee jail inmates test positive for COVID-19 with more waiting for results
Two Muscogee County Jail inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 and authorities are awaiting test results on three more who have shown symptoms, Sheriff Donna Tompkins said Friday.
Tompkins said all five inmates had been housed in the same dormitory. The two testing positive have been isolated together, as have the three awaiting results, she said.
Because newcomers at the jail are screened and quarantined before they’re added to the general inmate population, the staff does not believe anyone incarcerated brought the virus in, and instead must have caught it while in custody, she said.
That means a corrections officer or visitor may have had it, she said.
“They had contact with someone, obviously,” she said. “We’re trying to figure out who brought it in.”
The two positive tests this week bring the total number of inmates confirmed to have had COVID-19 since the outbreak began to three, she said. The first positive test on an inmate was back in late March.
Though few inmates have become infected, the sheriff’s office has had a total of 22 workers test positive since March, and 13 of those worked in the jail, the sheriff said. All were ordered to quarantine for two weeks, and one remains in the hospital on a ventilator, she said.
The test results this week prompted Tompkins to order all staff to wear masks, which previously was voluntary, she said. Inmates are provided masks only when they’re going to court, she said.
Rumors on social media this week alleged the jail was overcrowded and had a major outbreak of the new coronavirus, but neither is true, she said: The jail population Friday was at 787, and the facility has a capacity for 1,069.
She said workers clean the jail dormitories once a week, and the inmates are given their own cleaning supplies twice a day.
The new reports of positive inmate tests come as the pandemic surges across the South, with record numbers of residents testing positive in some areas.
Tompkins said tracking the virus is more challenging now as the overall situation rapidly changes. “Sometimes it changes hourly.” she said.