Almost 50 Nashville jail inmates test positive for COVID-19
Published 9:44 am Wednesday, June 24, 2020
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NASHVILLE (AP) — Nearly 50 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 at a Nashville jail, where all 502 inmates and approximately 100 staff will now be tested, sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.
The 48 inmates who tested positive at the Correctional Development Center for men have been in medical isolation since June 15, a Davidson County Sheriff’s Office news release says.
The sheriff’s office had reported Monday that one inmate had tested positive there, with 103 on housing restrictions.
Other Tennessee lockups have seen outbreaks. The biggest came when nearly 1,300 inmates and 50 workers tested positive at Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, which is privately run by CoreCivic. The outbreak spurred testing for all inmates and staff at state prisons.
As Nashville and Tennessee as a whole continue to reopen, both are seeing an uptick in new COVID-19 cases. As of Monday’s totals, the state has reported an average of 615 new cases daily over the last two weeks, compared to 453 daily in the previous 14-day period, said state Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey.
She added that half of coronavirus infections are now from an unknown source, when earlier most people were infected from people they knew or clusters at workplaces or elsewhere. She said it’s not surprising, since people are now moving around in the community.
Piercey said, however, that hospitalizations and deaths have remained stable.
Meanwhile in Shelby County, which includes Memphis, 9,000 evictions are in the court pipeline, and officials are working to keep renters from losing their homes or apartments. The county is establishing a $2 million fund from federal CARES Act money and other sources to provide legal and financial support to help prevent evictions.
Shelby County is currently in phase two of its reopening plan, which allows restaurants and retail stores to welcome guests at 50% capacity. Health department director Alisa Haushalter said Tuesday that there were no plans to move back into phase one, which would reduce capacities to 25%, despite increases in virus cases, hospitalizations and positivity rates.
