Some SLO County Jail inmates are under quarantine — but not because of coronavirus
After a several County Jail inmates missed scheduled court appearances this week due to being “in quarantine,” the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday afternoon that an outbreak of the flu has spread through seven jail housing units.
Despite the spread, the Sheriff’s Office says the number of influenza cases inside the jail “is generally in line with what we expect to see during the flu season,” and the cases are being managed with the help of county Public Health, according to a news release.
Approximately 150 inmates — or about a quarter of the inmate population — remained in quarantine at the jail as of Wednesday afternoon, said Sheriff’s Office spokesman Tony Cipolla.
Several attorneys told The Tribune Wednesday that the number of inmates reported to the court as in quarantine appeared to roughly double since Monday.
The first flu case this year appeared in the jail on March 8, and the Sheriff’s Office says to date there have been nine cases of confirmed influenza.
Four of those patients have recovered from their symptoms and have been released from isolation back into their housing units, the news release says.
The jail is considered a congregate living setting because of the close quarters, the news release said. “Multiple cases of the flu at one time are common.”
How the jail treats flu cases
According to Centers for Disease Control guidelines for management of influenza cases, which the Sheriff’s Office says jail staff follow, housing units with identified influenza patients are placed in quarantine, basically meaning that their movement is limited.
To date, the jail has had seven housing units under quarantine, and two of those units have since been released from quarantine, the agency says.
Each housing unit contains between 5 and 40 people, and housing units are released from quarantine after seven days of no new cases, the news release says.
While under quarantine, each person in the housing units are offered medicine (Tamiflu) to help prevent them contracting the flu.
“So far, no new cases of flu have been identified in the quarantined units,” the news release says.
On the same day as a shelter-in-place order was issued for SLO County to prevent spread of novel coronavirus, the jail also announced that an undisclosed number of inmates have been tested for COVID-19 and “none have come back positive.”
Cipolla on Wednesday declined to say how many inmates have been tested for COVID-19, saying the agency is “keeping consistent with Public Health in only reporting positive cases, in order to quell some of the panic associated with even talking about the testing process.”
“The jail’s protocol for testing, which was developed in conjunction with experts, is to test any person with fever and cough or respiratory symptoms for influenza,” the news release states. “If these results show influenza, then the person is treated for influenza. If the test is negative for influenza, the patient is tested for COVID-19.”
Jail taking extra precautions
The Sheriff’s Office says the jail has taken additional precautions, including extra cleaning of cells and common areas, instructing staff on the use of personal protective equipment, and education to the patients and the inmate population as a whole.
The news release says that court appearances for those inmates are being conducted via video conferencing.
The county Public Health Department announced in January that flu season — which generally begins in October or November, peaks between January and February, and lasts as late as May — was on the rise.
The first flu death in San Luis Obispo was reported Jan. 14.
The Sheriff’s Office announced Friday it was canceling discretionary inmate visits indefinitely as a proactive measure to prevent a coronavirus outbreak, but it said that official in-person visits between inmates and attorneys or members of law enforcement will still be conducted in glass-partitioned rooms.
Inmate educational programs have also been suspended until further notice.
Noozhawk reported Tuesday that 12 people affiliated with the Santa Barbara County Jail were in self-isolation at their homes after they were exposed to a Sheriff’s Office employee, who lives in San Luis Obispo County, tested positive for the coronavirus.
More information about local COVID-19 issues is available at ReadySLO.org.
