2 More Inmates, 7 Workers Get Coronavirus: Travis County Sheriff

AUSTIN, TX — Two new cases of the coronavirus have been diagnosed in inmates at the Travis County Jail, and seven more positive cases have emerged among members of the sheriff's office, officials revealed on Monday.

The Travis County Sheriff's Office updates on new coronavirus cases at its jail and among employees weekly. The pair of new cases were detected among the inmate population, while the seven cases at the sheriff's office comprised corrections, law enforcement and administrative office workers, officials said.

A sheriff's office spokesperson noted that those contracting the virus in the Corrections Bureau are not necessarily corrections officers. Moreover, Law Enforcement Bureau does not mean the employee is a deputy, officials added, saying all bureaus are made up of both sworn and civilian employees.

The sheriff's office detailed coronavirus-related statistics to date centered on its operations:

• Total jail population: 1,830.
• Inmates in quarantine: 30.
• Inmates in quarantine confirmed positive: 2.
• Inmates in isolation: 262.

Officials also detailed the coronavirus-related nomenclature:

• Quarantine houses inmates who are experiencing virus-like illness symptoms. About 1/3 of them have no symptoms and are in quarantine because they either refused to answer CDC guideline questions or answered yes to all CDC guideline questions on intake. They’re housed in quarantine until cleared by our medical staff. Quarantine is on a separate floor from all other inmates. Each inmate is in a single-occupancy cell and is seen twice a day by medical professionals.
• Quarantine – Confirmed Positive houses only those inmates who have tested positive for the virus. The inmates are housed in single-occupancy cells and are seen twice a day by medical professionals.
• Isolation refers to all newly booked, (healthy) inmates are held in single-occupancy cells for the first 10-14 days as another layer of protection to keep COVID-19 from entering our general population. If an inmate doesn’t show symptoms within that 10-14 day time period, our medical staff is more confident that it’s safe to introduce that person into the general population. We implemented this process on March 30th with approval from Texas Commission on Jail Standards.

Sheriff's officials outlined the level of COVID-19 tests undertaken noting the following stats are overall totals:

Inmates

• 985 tested.
• 937 negative.
• 50 positive.
• 7 pending.

Travis County Sheriff's Office employees

Law enforcement:

• Tested: 97.
• Negative: 83.
• Positive: 14.
• Pending: 0

Corrections:

• Tested: 308.
• Negative: 254.
• Positive: 49.
• Pending: 5.

Administration/Support:

• Tested: 96.
• Negative: 77.
• Positive: 19.
• Pending: 0.