Some at Mecklenburg jail may be quarantined after officer tests positive for COVID-19
A detention officer at the Mecklenburg County Jail has tested positive for COVID-19, the second reported case in four days inside the jail’s facilities.
The officer, according to a sheriff’s office press release, displayed symptoms of the coronavirus while being screened at the start of a work shift on Friday.
The jail employee was sent home to be tested over the weekend, the sheriff’s office said. The test came back positive.
While Sheriff Garry McFadden said the jail’s screening protocols appear to have averted widespread exposure of staff members and inmates, the jail and Mecklenburg County Health Department are trying “to identify, notify and quarantine those who were in close contact with the infected officer,” the release said.
This is the first confirmed case of the disease at the jail’s Detention Center-Central, which holds all but a few of the 1,415 jail inmates listed Monday.
On Friday, however, the jail reported that a contractor nurse who worked at the juvenile detention center also tested positive but officials said the risk of exposure from her case was minimal.
So far no cases have been reported among the inmates at the Mecklenburg jail, the largest county detention facility in the state.
Jails and prisons are considered potential breeding grounds for the coronavirus.
Cases of disease surged over the weekend at the federal prison in Butner, N.C.
In a pandemic-related attempt to reduce the inmate population and slow the daily churn of people entering and leaving the jail, the county’s criminal justice system is operating under a court order blocking most misdemeanor arrests.
Earlier, the courts, prosecutors and public defenders also worked together to reduce the number of inmates being held pretrial on misdemeanor charges.
As of Monday, the jail population stood at 1,414, about 200 inmates below where it was when the county began its efforts.
This story was originally published April 6, 2020 at 5:55 PM.
