41 Alameda sheriff’s deputies, staff members test positive for coronavirus since late June

More than 40 Alameda County sheriff’s deputies and staffers have tested positive for the coronavirus since late June as the department deals with a virus surge both in and out of Santa Rita Jail.

The department counted its first two positive cases among employees in March and didn’t record another until the end of June, Sgt. Ray Kelly said Saturday.

But in the past month alone, about 41 sheriff’s employees — mostly sworn deputies — have come down with the virus.

At one point in early July, about 70 of the department’s 1,600-person force were quarantined for illness or exposure.

The first batch of 35 infections were identified over the course of a few days, followed by another half-dozen over the past week. Many have since returned to work.

“We’re seeing a lot of asymptomatic tests,” Kelly said. “It’s the strange thing about the virus.”

Some infected deputies work in Santa Rita Jail — where a fast-paced outbreak caused coronavirus cases to more than double Friday to a total of 101 infected inmates — while others are part of separate units such as patrol.

Kelly did not have exact numbers Saturday as to where positive employees are assigned, but he said the infections hail from a mix of units. One deputy, 25-year veteran Oscar Rocha, has battled the virus from the intensive-care unit and remains in critical condition.

Even so, the department planned to host a scaleddown version of its annual fitness challenge Saturday and Sunday at its regional training center in Dublin, up the road from Santa Rita Jail. Just 13 people are competing this year compared with the usual 50 or so.

The event will include a running and obstacle course that participants will complete at separate times, Kelly said, with equipment cleaned between each turn.

“There is a very strict plan that was put in place in regards to sanitation, social distancing, the cleaning of any type of thing that would be touched,” Kelly said.

He added, “The sheriff feels that every tradition that we have, some of them we need to continue to at least try to feel normal during COVID-19.”