Pulaski County jail admits prisoner positive for virus

LITTLE ROCK — An individual arrested by Little Rock police who recently tested positive for the coronavirus is being held in a negative pressure room in the Pulaski County jail, according to a news release Monday from the Sheriff’s Office.

Authorities said Little Rock police informed facility staff of the individual’s positive covid-19 status before the detainee arrived at the jail. Medical care will be provided by Turn-Key Health, the jail’s health services provider.

The arrival of the individual infected with covid-19 at the Pulaski County jail presents the risk of an outbreak happening at a third detention facility in Arkansas. Two prisons in the state are already struggling to contain covid-19 outbreaks, and a total of more than 1,000 federal and state inmates have tested positive for the virus so far in Arkansas.

The Pulaski County inmate, who faces felony charges, is being held in a negative pressure room in the jail and will remain there until the person can be released under conditions set by the courts, the Sheriff’s Office said.

A negative pressure room is designed to contain airborne contaminants through a ventilation system removing more exhaust air from the room than air than is allowed in.

The detainee, who the Sheriff’s Office didn’t identify, is the only person in the room, according to Mitch McCoy, a spokesman for the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office.

McCoy declined to say when the inmate was booked into the jail, citing the federal health privacy law HIPAA.