8 inmates at jail test positive
Sheriff says another round of testing likely coming this week
OROVILLE » Eight inmates at the Butte County Jail have now tested positive for COVID-19 within the past week, marking an increase of two inmates from a couple of days ago.
The positive tests all came from the same housing unit made up of 34 inmates, all of whom were exposed when one inmate tested positive last week after developing a cough, though with no additional symptoms, and requested a test for the virus, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said.
When that particular inmate tested positive, tests were ordered for the entire unit, in addition to jail staff. The first round of testing yielded an additional five positive tests, before two more inmates tested positive during the weekend. Forty staff members at the jail were also tested, and all tests came back negative on the first round.
Honea said they are awaiting the results of the most recent tests conducted Monday, and will likely do another round of testing later in the week.
“We are doing another round of testing (Monday), which we’re waiting for the results (of), and then we’ll probably do another round of testing later this week,”
Honea said. “So a continual process of testing until we (clear) the 14-day period and have two negative tests. Then we’ll know whether or not we can release the individuals who were in the original housing unit.”
While the eight inmates who tested positive are being isolated in a dormitory separate from the rest of the unit, Honea added that the Butte County Jail is not allowing new inmates into that particular housing unit, nor transferring inmates out of the unit to other parts of the facility.
The Butte County Jail has kept the same procedures in place since earlier in the pandemic, including screening inmates for the virus upon arriving at the jail and conducting weekly checks among the inmate population.
“The difficulty, of course, is when you’re dealing with individuals who are asymptomatic,” Honea said. “When you have that, someone could come into the facility who was asymptomatic — no way to really detect them at that point — then leave the facility. We think it was possible that perhaps the first individual that we’ve talked about here maybe contracted (the virus) from someone who came into the facility and then left before we were aware of them being positive.”
This most recent instance of a positive COVID-19 case at the Butte County Jail was preceded by one that occurred in May when one inmate tested positive, while 26 others who were possibly exposed tested negative.
Honea said that situation was a good opportunity for staff to refine their response by seeing a real scenario play out, and ultimately, better prepared them for the current outbreak among the inmate population.
“I think that certainly informed our process this time around,” Honea said. “One of things that probably helped the most with this is, once we went through the first experience, it helped our staff as well as the inmate population understand the process that we have in place. And it helps reduce that fear and anxiety of the unknown when you haven’t actually dealt with the situation in real life.”