Montgomery inmate tests positive for virus

An inmate in the Montgomery County Jail has tested positive for COVID-19 two days after giving birth to a baby girl, according to the sheriff ’s office.

The woman, who is in her 20s, has been at the jail since October and was transported to a hospital Tuesday for induced labor on a non-emergency basis, according to agency spokesman Lt. Scott Spencer. During delivery Wednesday, health care workers noticed a high temperature, and her positive test came back Friday.

“As a precaution the inmate was placed in isolation and tests were done, which confirmed a positive test result for COVID-19,” the agency’s statement said. “The inmate is in stable condition at the local hospital. Tests are being conducted on the child, but as of this release, results are not available.”

The woman is the jail’s first confirmed case of the disease caused by the new coronavirus. Spencer said public health workers are tracking down possible exposures and how the woman contracted the virus.

Six jail workers who had contact with the woman have been sent home to self-quarantine, the sheriff’s office said. None have displayed symptoms as yet.

The agency will require staff and inmates to wear masks in the wake of the positive test, but it isn’t making any other changes at this time to combat a potential outbreak.

“Right now this is what we feel is the best interest in what we are implementing with the case,” said Spencer. “I’m sure obviously that is subject to change based on other things (that) happen, but right now that is the only policy change we are making.”

The woman had been in the jail since Oct. 27 on “numerous charges of felony burglary and felony evading.” Spencer said those charges were in several counties, “so it takes a little while to go through those.”

The woman was not in general population due to her pregnancy,

Spencer said. All newly arriving inmates are quarantined for 14 days before being placed in general population, the agency said.

All visitations have been canceled until further notice, according to a sign on the jail’s front door.

Jason Milsaps, who directs the county’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said the sheriff ’s office had been preparing for this to happen.

“It is something you prepare for the worst and prepare for the best and they already had plans in place,” Milsaps said. “It was very easy to implement the quarantine of other inmates and individuals associated with this inmate because they already had those protocols in place and were ready to act on them.”

Public health experts and policy makers in the Houston region have worried about the consequences that an outbreak in a jail could carry for the community at large. Cramped conditions in lock-ups mean the easily transmitted virus could spread “like wildfire,” they have warned.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo had ordered the release of certain low-level defendants from the jail here, though an administrative judge halted the order.

Five people who work at the Harris County jail and three inmates have tested positive for the coronavirus, with 800 more inmates quarantined.