Fourth SLO County Jail inmate tests positive for COVID-19

A fourth San Luis Obispo County Jail inmate has tested positive for COVID-19, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday.

The inmate was found to have coronavirus symptoms on July 21 and was immediately isolated from the other inmates, according to a Sheriff’s Office news release.

The test on the inmate came back positive Wednesday, the agency said.

On Saturday, the Sheriff’s Office announced that two county jail inmates had tested positive for coronavirus, the first reported cases of COVID-19 at the facility.

The Sheriff’s Office reported Sunday that a third inmate tested positive for COVID-19 along with a patrol deputy and a correctional deputy. Two correctional deputies tested positive last week.

“All are recovering. No one has been hospitalized,” the agency said in a news release. “To date, all inmates in the exposed housing units are being tested and are being monitored for symptoms.”

Chief medical officer Dr. Christy Mulkerin told The Tribune that jail staff are “in a state of hyper-vigilance.”

Though staff members have isolated any inmate or sent home any employee who could have come into contact with the disease and has tested roughly 100 inmates in the last 48 hours, Mulkerin said it’s too early to say that a potential outbreak has been contained.