The Allen County Detention Centeris battling an outbreak of COVID-19.
The jail has had 20 of 58 inmates test positive for COVID-19, along with one staff member.
Allen County Judge Executive Dennis Harper said he and his staff are working with the public health department and the dentention center staff on measures to address the issue.
“The positive inmates and the ones that have been exposed are being kept together," said Harper. "Some inmates that are not a threat to the citizens of Allen County, and have a stable home to go to, are being released and monitored by ankle tracker and the Allen County Health Department."
The jail will now do weekly testing of inmates and the 15 staff members until the facility has three straight weeks with no positive cases. The testing will be done at the jail, by a nurse practitioner, in cooperation with the Allen County Health Department.
Harper said inmates and staff have daily temperature checks and the facility is frequently disinfected.
Even before the current testing regimen, all new inmates were kept isolated for 14 days.
The judge executive said testing of all staff and inmates was done last week after a positive case was discovered in an inmate who was being transferred to another facility.
"The judicial staff, the detention center staff, Allen County Health Department and myself started working together to address this issue as soon as we discovered a positive case at the detention center," said Harper. “We will continue to address this issue as safely and securely as we can for the inmates, detention center staff and the citizens of Allen County.”
