(La Porte, IN) - The La Porte County Jail was pitching a perfect game against COVID-19 until just recently.  Captain Derek Allen said the first offender tested positive last week.  42 additional offenders have since tested positive, he said. 

 

Allen said all of the offenders confirmed as having the virus are being kept in isolation.  Fortunately, police said there have been no deaths and nobody has been hospitalized.

 

Another 95 inmates tested negative, but are in quarantine due to having been exposure to infected offenders.   They will reamain in quarantine for the required 14 days as a precaution to guard against further spread, police said.

 

“There’s a lot of thought process and hard work that went into making sure we made every attempt to keep it out as long as we did and were successful for as long as we were but at this point it caught up with us,” Allen said.

 

Like they have from the beginning, Allen said jail staff members are continuing to screen all incoming offenders for symptoms and placing them in quarantine for 14 days unless they post bond prior to the end of the quarantine period.  "We're implementing additional measures now and taking it head on in caring for the safety and health of every inmate that we have," he said.

 

Allen said how the virus entered the jail is not known.