Two Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office employees were sent home last week to quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19.
The two, who were not identified due to medical privacy laws, were asymptomatic, meaning they showed no signs of illness, said Bulloch County sheriff’s Chief Deputy Bill Black.
All inmates and employees underwent COVID-19 testing last week when a Georgia National Guard strike team, at Bulloch County Sheriff Noel Brown’s request, visited the Bulloch County Jail for that purpose. The test results were returned and all were negative except for the two employees, Black said. No inmates tested positive for the virus.
Upon notification that their tests returned positive, the two employees were “immediately sent home so they could quarantine for the appropriate amount of time.”
No inmates or employees have shown any sign of illness that could indicate the presence of the coronavirus, he said.
All inmates and employees have been supplied with masks and sanitizer. The jail, which normally houses well over 400 inmates, only holds about 260 at this time, he said.
As for keeping the actual jail clean and safe, “Crider Poultry provided us with enough disinfectant to sanitize our jail and all of our patrol vehicles several times over, free of charge,” he said. “All newly arriving inmates are automatically quarantined upon arrival and checked for symptoms by medical staff prior to being release into the general population.”
Community numbers
Bulloch County Public Safety and Emergency Management Agency Director Ted Wynn reminds people that the Specimen Point of Collection Center that was located at the Kiwanis fairgrounds is closed and will reopen Saturday after relocating to the Bulloch County Health Department at 1 W. Altman St. For an appointment to be tested, free of charge, call 855-473-4374.
As of 7 p.m. Wednesday, Bulloch County has had 54 positive cases and two COVID-19 related deaths. There have been nine patents hospitalized locally with the virus. Wednesday, East Georgia Regional Medical Center had three patients being treated for COVID-19.
Statewide, as of 7 p.m. Wednesday, 518,591 tests had been performed. There were 44,638 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 7,745 hospitalized, 1,753 in ICU. There have been a total of 1,933 deaths.
Herald reporter Holli Deal Saxon may be reached at (912) 489-9414.