COVID-19 outbreak grows at Lexington-Fayette County jail. Some inmates on lockdown.
The Lexington-Fayette County Detention Center is dealing with a new COVID-19 outbreak that has infected 317 inmates in the past few weeks, including nearly 180 since Monday.
The new outbreak began in mid-to-late November. The jail announced on Nov. 24 that eight inmates recently tested positive, and inmates housed in the same units were going to be isolated and tested. That round of testing revealed 136 new coronavirus cases, pushing the outbreak total to 144.
The jail announced Monday that it was going to test the entire inmate population. As of Thursday evening, 173 more inmates had tested positive, according to data obtained from the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department by the Herald-Leader through a Freedom of Information Act request. The jail was housing 962 inmates as of Friday.
The jail said in a news release that 174 inmates were isolated with COVID-19 as of Friday afternoon, and another 121 had already recovered from the virus. Most of the inmates who tested positive did not have any symptoms, according to the jail.
Capt. Matt LeMonds said in the release that no inmates currently required hospitalization for coronavirus.
Any inmate who tested positive was isolated, and 13 of the jail’s 19 occupied housing units were locked down while the jail tested all of its inmates, LeMonds said earlier. The jail also postponed court hearings for inmates who tested positive or were isolating with symptoms, LeMonds said. That was affecting three of the housing units as of Wednesday.
As of Friday, he said recreation was suspended in 12 of the jail’s 19 occupied units.
“Once we have all results from this round of testing, we hope to resume normal operations as inmates that have tested positive are removed from our general population,” LeMonds said previously.
The 317 new cases are the first since September. The jail had reported a total of 100 positive inmates between March and September. No new cases were reported among inmates in October.
The jail also announced Monday that 12 staff members recently tested positive, and the entire staff would be tested. As of Friday, 14 staff members were positive for COVID-19, according to the jail’s release.
Herald-Leader staff writer Karla Ward contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 4, 2020 at 8:36 AM.