All Weld County Jail Inmates To Receive Coronavirus Test
WELD COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - The Weld County Jail started testing all inmates for coronavirus on Wednesday. The sheriff's office asked for 1,500 testing kits from the state health department last week. They arrived on Tuesday.
Turnkey Health Clinics provides medical services at the jail. Staff and the clinic will administer tests on all 468 inmates, the sheriff's office says. The process is expected to take two days.
Officials expect results to be return at the start of next week.
"We want to know how widespread COVID-19 truly is in the facility and determine if the protocols we began to implement in late February successfully mitigated the spread of Coronavirus in the jail," said Sheriff Steve Reams.
In May, a federal judge ordered Reams to further protect medically-vulnerable inmates from coronavirus. Reams invited CBS4's Dillon Thomas to the jail to discuss how his staff has met the standards outlined by the judge in his injunction.
Positive cases will be medically isolated until they return two, consecutive negative test results.
The sheriff's office says 10 inmates have tested positive up until this new shipment of tests. Three of the 10 were positive before entering the jail.
As of Wednesday, two of the 10 inmates remain in isolation and are awaiting a second negative test result.
Eighteen jail deputies have tested positive for COVID-19 to date. All have returned to work.