More than 100 detainees, staff test positive for COVID-19 in Wake County Jail

Wake County’s two jails have their worst coronavirus outbreaks since the start of the pandemic, with more than 100 staffers and detainees who have tested positive for the virus.

Durham County also has an outbreak at its downtown jail, according to the state Department of Human Services.

There are 56 cases among inmates at Wake’s Public Safety Center in downtown Raleigh and 43 inmate cases at the Wake County Detention Center on Hammond Road, between Raleigh and Garner, a news release from the Sheriff’s Office stated. Detainees who have tested positive are separated from general populations and placed in single cells.

There are also 17 Wake County detention employees who have tested positive for the virus, according to the release.

The Sheriff’s Office also reported a coronavirus outbreak at the Hammond Road jail in August, The News & Observer previously reported.

“No one has ever faced something like this before,” Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker said in the release. “This pandemic has forced us to change our practices and policies constantly to ensure that we do our best to keep staff and residents safe from contracting this potentially deadly disease.”

There are roughly 1,100 detainees in the downtown Raleigh and Hammond Road jails combined.

The outbreak occurred despite precautions, the release stated. Detainees are screened for COVID-19 and get masks that they must wear, along with staff.

New admissions are put in quarantine dorms and screened for COVID-19. They remain there for 14 days and if they test positive, they stay another 14 days. All staff and inmates are tested, and visitors must go through a thermoscan, according to the release.

Inmates cannot meet their attorneys in person, Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Eric Curry said in a phone call. They have to go through screening and are escorted to a “public monitor” area where they talk via video conference. he said.

Curry said the Sheriff’s Office doesn’t know how the virus came into the facilities. “It could have been staff members, It could have been arrestees as well,” he said. “We cannot determine the exact source.”

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the Durham County jail also has an active outbreak, with five cases among staff and 12 among detainees as of a Tuesday report. A Durham County detention officer died from COVID-19 complications last year.

This story was originally published January 14, 2021 at 8:50 AM.