Bonniff County Sheriff Paul Wilde announces COVID19 cases at Bonneville County Jail. | Eric Grossarth, EastIdahoNews.com
IDAHO FALLS – Nearly every resident in one pod at the Bonneville County Jail tested positive for COVID-19.
Bonniff County Sheriff Paul J. Wilde made the announcement Wednesday at a news conference. Wilde says that last week a resident did not feel well and asked to be tested.
Medical staff performed the test and on Friday a lab gave a positive result for coronavirus. Everyone in his pod was tested Monday and of the 35 inmates held in the unit, 34 received positive results Tuesday night.
“Procedures to keep this particular housing unit isolated and minimize contamination of as many parts of the prison as possible were immediately implemented,” Wilde said.
Prison staff report residents testing positive for COVID-19 saying they have no symptoms.
Jail Doctor Jeff Keller said by following CDC guidelines for prisons, the staff hopes to prevent new cases from coming in.
Each resident upon booking receives an inquirer who determines their potential exposure to the virus. The inmates are then isolated for another 14 days in another part of the jail before going to the pods, Keller explains.
“We have issued extra sanitary supplies and masks to all residents,” Keller says. “Residents are not required to wear the masks inside the dorms, but they are required to wear the masks outside the dorms.”
Prison inmates are not the only ones testing positive for COVID-19. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, three members of the prison staff have tested positive for the virus. Wilde said these staff members were isolated and did not come to work.
“Everyone has masks in the facility and everyone is trying everything they can,” Wilde says. “They did all the cleaning and precautionary measures they could.”
Wilde says the sheriff’s office is making every effort to protect everyone who is in their custody and prison staff are well equipped and prepared for the pandemic.
“A prison is not the Marriot,” Wilde says. “It is a prison, but our prison is being cared for. We maintain it. We make sure there is a medical staff that takes care of our residents. All the bad stuff that comes out about how bad it is needs to be removed and know that the inmates at Bonneville County Jail are being properly cared for. ‘
While prison staff say they are doing everything they can to not spread COVID-19, at least one resident still felt worried. Skylar Briggs spent less than 24 hours in jail before bonding Tuesday.
“Immediately when I got in there, everyone seemed to cough,” Briggs says. “I was a little worried about myself being in it.”
Briggs says that saw how the staff moved from unit to unit added to his concerns.
“I do not want to catch it,” Briggs says. ‘I felt like everyone around me was sick. … I hope they can get it under control and I hope they can treat residents better and maybe provide medicines that can help with their symptoms. ”
Keller said when submitters tested positive for COVID-19, medical personnel provided ibuprofen and acetaminophen to manage the symptoms.
The cases that appeared late Tuesday night have not yet been included in Bonneville County’s overall case numbers, said Eastern Idaho Public Health Community Director Jame Corbett. If the actual test reports are received by EIPH, the numbers will be added.
“This is isolated,” Corbett says. “Congregate housing facilities, specifically not long-term care, but prisons or prisons, are not counted in the current case rate.”
As the cases are not considered active, the prisoner numbers will not affect the threshold numbers set by EIPH. The threshold numbers determine at what stage the province is. Currently, with the number of cases Bonneville County has held for three days, health officials place the area at moderate risk as yellow.
Wilde says that while residents are sick, they take the situation seriously and take care of the deputies.
“It will not be if mom takes care of you when you get the flu,” Wilde says. “But we have a great medical staff that are professional … and they will take good care of our residents who are in our care.”
