2 more FCSO employees test positive
♦ A digital screening system is ordered for the Floyd County Jail.
Two more Floyd County Sheriff’s Office employees have tested positive for COVID-19.
If there’s good news in this story, it’s that the two had either limited contact or no contact with jail inmates and staff, according to Jail Administrator Maj. Bob Sapp.
“We’re continuing to monitor it daily,” Sapp said. “We’re continuing the prescreens, wearing of face coverings and masks, social distancing and disinfecting.”
An employee who tested positive last week has already tested negative for the virus, Sapp said, and is slated to return to work Aug. 13.
One of the newly positive employees worked in the same area as the first one, with limited contact between other employees and inmates, he said. Neither of those two displayed symptoms of the virus.
The third employee who tested positive works in the warrants division and had not been at work for over a week when they began exhibiting symptoms, so there aren’t any known exposures from the staff or the inmates.
So far, none of the inmates at the jail have exhibited any symptoms, Sapp said. However, he said there are a few in quarantine who have had fevers or were feeling under the weather.
“Even before the pandemic, if an inmate had any kind of temperature, we would quarantine them in medical,” Sapp said. “We do have a few COVID-19 tests available, but no inmates have developed any symptoms yet.”
The jail staff leaves it up to the medical division to determine if an inmate needs to be tested. The decision is be based on symptoms the inmate is exhibits, who they have been around and where they came from before being booked into the jail.
Sapp said jail officers enforce social distancing between inmates as much as possible. The inmates also wear face coverings when they leave
their cell blocks and when they’re out in public on work detail.
“If we catch them not wearing a mask during their work detail, they will be locked down,” he said.
Over the last week, the sheriff’s office staff has increased their disinfecting procedures, using special products that help kill the coronavirus. They’re also looking at adding plexiglass screens in the booking area as well as other areas to limit close interactions between officers, inmates and the general public.
“We’re also looking to come up with a way to open up our fingerprinting to the public again and have a plexiglass
to separate people we’re fingerprinting from our staff,” Sapp said.
The sheriff’s office will be receiving new screening equipment in the next two weeks.
The digital equipment, an R.S. Tech Fever Screening System, will take employees’ pictures and check their temperature at the same time, then automatically store the data into a system. This will help staff keep better track of employees’ normal temperatures and health statuses over the next months.
“We’re anticipating delivery this week, but if not, it’ll be next week,” Sapp said.