Inmates and employees at Fayette County Detention Center test positive for coronavirus
Eight inmates and four staff members at the Lexington-Fayette County Detention Center have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past week, according to a Tuesday night news release from the jail.
The detention center has placed the inmates who tested positive in medical isolation. Inmates who had been housed with them have been separated from the general population and tested for coronavirus, the jail said. Test results are pending for 326 inmates.
The jail said it is also waiting for results on 51 staff members who were tested for the virus.
Capt. Matthew LeMonds said in the release that these are the first new cases of coronavirus reported at the jail since the outbreak in September.
By Sept. 15, 100 inmates at the jail had tested positive, and 11 staff members had contracted the virus. There had been no deaths among inmates as a result of the virus.
The jail said it is working with the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department for guidance on testing and ways to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.
The news of the new cases comes as Kentucky state prisons are seeing increasing spread of the illness. As of Monday, 1,108 inmates and 134 employees in state prisons had tested positive for coronavirus, according to the Department of Corrections. Fifteen state inmates and two corrections department employees have died as a result of COVID-19.
This story was originally published November 24, 2020 at 11:08 PM.
