Eighty-two Dougherty Jail inmates in quarantine after coronavirus cases confirmed

ALBANY — Officials with the Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office say they are hoping an outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the county jail has been contained and limited to seven inmates who tested positive this week for the disease.

Since two new cases were diagnosed on Tuesday afternoon, there have been no new confirmed cases among inmates. The 82 inmates in the pod are in quarantine, Col. John Ostrander, who is in charge of jail operations, said.

Prior to this week, only two inmates and two jail nurses had tested positive during the pandemic.

“I think this was due to the Thanksgiving surge,” Ostrander said of the new cases. The sheriff’s office released information about the cases on Tuesday to alert the public of the situation.

The recent outbreak is the first in the general population.

Inmates are isolated for 14 days before they are released into the pods that contain day rooms and cells.

“Many of them are released from jail before they finish the quarantine period,” Ostrander said. “If they stay longer than that, then on the 15th day they are released into the general population.”

Several jail staff also have tested positive for the virus, and it is believed a staff member was the origin of transmission among inmates.

“We just feel like that’s the most likely (scenario),” Ostrander said. “I can’t think of any other way the virus could have been introduced into the living area.”

The jail is taking all precautions, including rapid testing, to monitor the situation, he said.

“I think we’re going to be in good shape,” Ostrander said. “We feel like staff have done an outstanding job. Hopefully this will be a blip, we’ll get over this minor outbreak, it won’t get worse, and we’ll be COVID-free again.”

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