First results in on massive inmate COVID-19 testing at Sedgwick County Jail

The first results of massive COVID-19 testing of Sedgwick County Jail inmates have come back: 113 positives out of 302, or about 37%.

Colonel Brian White said the results that came back Wednesday were from the 350 inmates tested Monday. They also expect additional results from staff being tested.

This week, the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office started to test all of its roughly 1,510 inmates and staff after the first inmate tested positive a few weeks ago.

So far, 235 inmates out of 569 have tested positive, for a positivity rate of about 41%. White said the percent of positive could be misleading because in the early stages they were testing symptomatic people and those closest to them.

The latest staff figures had 11 positives and 36 negatives or about 23%.

The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office had one deputy hospitalized because of the virus a few weeks ago but he has since been released, White said. This week, an inmate in his 50s was also taken to the hospital for an unrelated reason and tested positive, White said.

The sheriff’s office has been bringing its tests directly to Topeka to try and expedite the turnaround to 2-3 days, White said. They expect to finish testing Thursday and have all of the results possibly by the end of the week.

White said they hope to have a dashboard up on sedgwickcounty.org/sheriff by the beginning of next week with information on cases at the jail.

The jail started releasing inmates early in the pandemic and then slowed the process before inmates started to test positive.

“But it’s been a very brief amount of time and we really haven’t seen the impact of some of those strategies,” he said, “but we expect that that will start happening soon.”

White said the sheriff’s office has also been consulting with Phil Griffin at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment on how to control the spread. White said Griffin has worked with Kansas prisons, including Lansing Correctional Facility, to help mitigate its disease spread.

The Kansas Department of Corrections has reported 1,189 cases and seven deaths between inmates and staff. Lansing had the largest outbreak with 850 inmates infected and 96 staff. Two staff and four inmates have died at Lansing.

Before deciding to test the entire facility, the sheriff’s office had about 26 inmates and a deputy test positive. Last week, the sheriff’s office said a kitchen worker tested positive, causing the 54 inmates working in the kitchen to have to be quarantined.

The outbreak at the jail led the Sedgwick County District Court to issue an administrative order this week suspending in-person court appearances for jail inmates for 30 days or until the outbreak is over. Judges plan to hold virtual hearings for those defendants and anyone who was in the jail over the past two weeks to prevent the infection from spreading into the courthouse.