CHICAGO: At least 450 inmates at a Chicago jail tested positive for coronavirus infection on Thursday according to jail information sources.
This is by far the largest report of the outbreak within a confined site in the US.
The Cook County Jail in Chicago keeps detainees in close quarters. The situation came to the notice of authorities when the inmates began to show handmade signs saying they needed help through their cell windows opening over a public street.
“Sheriff’s officers and county medical professionals are aggressively working round-the-clock to combat the unprecedented global coronavirus pandemic,” the Cook County Sheriff’s Office said in a written statement on Thursday.
The jail authorities say they have arranged a 500-bed “quarantine and care facility” for prisoners to move as many inmates as possible from double to single cells, and the opening of a testing site at the jail.
“Front line” staff members were being checked for fever at the start of each shift and issued protective equipment if they interact with inmates, according to the sheriff’s department.
Pleas of prisoners to be released or transferred from the jail have been rejected by the district judge.
