A second Lexington jail employee tests positive for coronavirus
A second employee at the Lexington-Fayette County Detention Center has tested positive for coronavirus.
“I have received confirmation from the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department that another individual within our jail community has tested positive for COVID-19,” Community Corrections Director Steve Haney said in an email to jail staff Saturday afternoon. “The investigation conducted by the health department directs that two additional individuals within our jail community need to be self quarantined.”
Haney said in the email that “no additional action is needed” beyond the self-quarantine of those two people, and he encouraged staff to “please continue to wash your hands and practice social distancing.”
City spokeswoman Susan Straub said the employee with the virus, a Fayette County resident, had “minimal contact” with inmates and had been wearing a mask.
She said no inmates have tested positive for COVID-19.
The city was notified Monday that a jail staff member who lives in a neighboring county had tested positive for the new virus, but the city said that no staff or inmates needed to be quarantined in connection with that case.
Straub said Saturday that the second employee who tested positive did not work with that person.
In an attempt to thin the jail population in light of the pandemic, Fayette County transferred inmates to state prisons and released 48 people who had been convicted of non-violent misdemeanors and who had less than 45 days left on their sentence.
The jail had a population of 1,102 inmates as of March 25.
This story was originally published April 4, 2020 at 8:01 PM.
