Sheriff Mike Nielsen
A total of 25 inmates and a staff member contracted COVID-19 over the last week at the Boone County Jail, due to one undetected case. Three of these are considered fully-vaccinated inmates or “breakthrough” cases.
“They still are symptomatic,” Sheriff Mike Nielsen said of the cases. “You and I can still get the virus even though we were vaccinated, but the probability of us dying or getting so bad we have to go to the hospital is a lot less.”
As per policies created at the beginning of the pandemic, every inmate in the jail is quarantined for 72 hours when brought in. But, on July 16, an inmate was confirmed to have COVID-19. Despite issuing masks, deep cleaning of the affected cells and quarantining the entire cell block, the virus spread rapidly. None of the cases have required hospitalization.
In a response to several questions from WTCA, Marshall County Sheriff Matt Hassel responded about the outbreak of COVID-19 in the jail on Wednesday morning.
Hassel said, “Since the Emergency Declaration was issued for COVID-19 the jail has been operating under the CDC guidelines for residential treatment facilities. Basically the same as nursing homes and hospitals.” The sheriff said two weeks ago they had an inmate that was going to have a procedure done at the hospital but needed to be COVID tested before the procedure. The inmate tested negative on the rapid test, had no symptoms but tested positive in the laboratory test.