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Santa Clara County Sheriff Reports 3 New COVID-19 Cases Among Inmates

SAN JOSE (CBS SF) – The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday announced three new cases of COVID-19 coronavirus among inmates at its jails since last weekend.

The first of the three was an inmate who tested positive Saturday after being arrested on suspicion of numerous felonies on May 9.

He was housed in one of the county Main Jail's nine "14-day separation units" established in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Inmates in the units receive daily temperature checks and COVID-19 tests before being able to integrate into the larger jail population, according to the sheriff's office.

There were 24 inmates in the separation unit with the one who tested positive. All were tested for COVID-19 and tested negative, but will remain housed together with a restarted 14-day separation period.

Then on Tuesday, an inmate at the Elmwood Correctional Facility's Minimum Camp tested positive for COVID-19. After showing flu-like symptoms, the inmate was moved to a medical unit with a negative airflow isolation cell and all 29 inmates in the same housing barracks were moved to isolation cells and tested for COVID-19.

The next day, a second inmate from Elmwood's rehoused barracks tested positive and was also moved to a negative airflow isolation cell.

As a precaution, the sheriff's office is in the process of testing all 344 inmates at Elmwood's Minimum Camp as well as employees who have had contact with the inmates, and also has investigators doing contact tracing to determine possible exposures from the inmates who tested positive.

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