Jackson County jail begins weekly coronavirus testing of all detainees, staff
As coronavirus infections surge across the Kansas City metro, the Jackson County jail this week began testing all detainees and staff in the hopes of preventing its spread.
This decision to test the nearly 800 jailed individuals once a week was made in an attempt to prevent the number of COVID-19 infections inside the Jackson County Detention Center from spiking as the metro areas sees record-breaking infection numbers, Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forté said Wednesday.
Since March 2020, 105 staff members have tested positive for the coronavirus, in addition to 77 detainees, Forté said; all have made a full recovery. No deaths have been linked to the jail, he added.
This week, four detainees and eight non-detainees, which include staff, vendors and contractors, tested positive for the virus. Forté said it’s not clear whether they were infected inside the jail or elsewhere.
The jail-wide testing schedule began Tuesday, Forté said. The testing will be done in shifts three days a week, with about one-third of the detention center tested at a time. He expects results to be turned around in about 48 hours.
The tests, which cost $50 each, are paid for by county funds, Forté said. They plan on testing everyone four times over the next four weeks. At that point the sheriff’s office will decide whether to ask the legislature for additional funding for continued site-wide testing.
On Wednesday, the seven-day case average for the Kansas City metro hit an all-time high as more than 1,200 new infections were reported.
Two days earlier, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas announced some of the strictest COVID-19 restrictions since the spring, cutting restaurant capacity by half and banning indoor gatherings of more than 10 people beginning Friday.
Jackson County announced similar restrictions Monday as the number of COVID-19 cases in the metro area surged.
“If nothing else it brings more attention to the matter and shows people that some of our elected officials are serious about it,” Forté said of the new directives.
Inside the detention center, all staff are required to wear masks. Those jailed are also issued masks when they’re detained. Jail staff also sanitize high-trafficked areas regularly, the sheriff said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, 13 detainees were in “precautionary quarantine,” reduced from 90 detainees earlier in the week, Forté said.
Those in isolation are a combination of people who had possible exposures in the jail or outside the jail before they were brought in.
Those detainees are separated from the rest of the group and monitored for symptoms for about two weeks, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Forté said.
“This is basically how it’s been throughout,” Forté said of the current case count and quarantine procedures. Though he said the structured jail-wide testing is a first.
The sharp spike in cases across the community outside the jail walls is not yet reflected in the detention center’s numbers. Forté hopes the regular testing can help keep it that way.
“We just want to make sure we stay on top of it,” he said.
