Four more COVID-19 cases reported at the jail
♦ Six cell blocks are under quarantine as officials work to isolate the spread.
Four positive COVID- 19 cases have been confirmed at Floyd County Jail and staff is continuing to operate under strict Code Yellow guidelines within the jail.
Six cell blocks have been reserved for quarantined inmates, with one holding the inmates who have tested positive. At this moment, according to the jail’s COVID- 19 Coordinator Debra Mccain, seven inmates are awaiting test results.
“If we have someone test positive or showing symptoms of COVID, we put them in Medical and get them tested. But because the rest of the inmates in that block might have come into contact with that one particular person, then we are quarantining the block until we receive the test results back,” Mccain said.
The symptoms of the inmates are varying, with some experiencing headaches, runny noses and loss of taste or smell. At least two are running low grade fevers and are awaiting test results, Mccain said.
“Some of the symptoms could be from the weather changing, but we can’t be sure,” she said.
An outbreak at the jail is something Floyd County Sheriff’s Office staff have been preparing for since March, when the pandemic first hit Northwest Georgia.
According to Sheriff Tim Burkhalter, they’ve been following guidelines provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, such as having all inmates wear masks when in general population and fogging the jail three times a week with a special disinfectant that kills the virus.
When jail staff enter a cell block holding the COVID- 19 positive inmates, they wear personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves and isolation gowns.
“There’s a huge potential for our staff to be exposed,” Burkhalter said. “We’re taking every precaution that we have with all of the PPE that we have ... We’re managing and giving all the gear we have to our staff.”
“We have worked tirelessly to put things in place and every day is a changing dynamic here at the sheriff’s office,” Mccain said.
Mccain described several scenarios for how tightened operations — termed Code Red — would work. There is a possibility they would allow only essential staff at the jail or bar anyone other than jail staff from the building — including attorneys and visiting family members.
Calls to inmates could be done remotely instead of using the onsite video call service. A likely Code Red procedure would be to refuse any transfers from other facilities.
But like many agencies that have dealt with changing work places during the pandemic, they’re not sure, Mccain said.
Local cases appear to trend upward
It’s still too early to tell if we’re seeing a steady increase in new COVID- 19 cases or an isolated bump, but numbers and positivity rates have risen in the past two weeks.
The daily average for the past week was at 21.9 new cases on Tuesday, according to Georgia Department of Public Health records. That’s up from an average low of 14 new cases per day in early October, but down significantly from highs of 60 to 70 new cases per day on average in August and early September.
Another factor is an increase in the positivity rate for Floyd County and nearby counties.
Public health officials have said monitoring the percentage of positive cases is a critical indicator of how widespread the disease is. It also is a measurement of whether the amount of testing is providing an accurate measure of the transmission of the disease.
Health officials have said they would like to see positivity rates around the 5% mark and that rates of 10% and above could signify a pervasive community spread.
Floyd County’s positivity rate for the past two weeks creeped up to 10.3% on Tuesday — Bartow’s was at 12.4%, Gordon’s was at 13.6%, Chattooga’s was at 9.9% and Polk’s was at 9.2%.
These increases come after decreasing rates in the past few weeks.