HANCOCK COUNTY — Roughly a third of the inmates at the Hancock County Jail have now tested positive for COVID-19 after updated figures on infections were released Monday, May 10.
The number of inmates infected has grown to 46, up from 33 reported at this time last week. Officials with the sheriff’s department are also reporting that four jail staff members have tested positive for the virus. A total of 139 inmates were jailed on Monday. Last week, the number was 143.
Capt. Robert Harris, public information officer for the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, said none of the inmates and officers are experiencing any difficulties. All infected inmates are still in quarantine and showing only mild symptoms. The sheriff’s department employees who tested positive are at home in quarantine.
“The new cases are existing inmates who have been here for a while, so we are assuming they caught it from other inmates who were already here, or from a staff member,” Harris said.
The jail, which had taken steps to limit prisoner intake throughout the pandemic, had remained relatively COVID-free until the past two weeks.
Officials began offering vaccines when reports first surfaced in late April about the virus hitting the jail. Earlier in the month, Sheriff Brad Burkhart said, jail officials had worked with Quality Correctional Care, the jail’s medical contractor, to obtain a supply of Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose vaccine to offer to prisoners after the state lowered the vaccine age on March 31 to include all adults.
According to a timeline provided by Burkhart, the jail was set to begin vaccinations as early as April 12. On April 13, concerns over a rare clotting disorder that was detected in a tiny handful of people who had received the shot worldwide halted use of the J&J vaccine for 10 days.
Jail officials had by then elected to use the one-shot J&J regimen because coordinating use of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines — which require two doses — would be logistically difficult in the jail, Burkhart said.
Jail officials also felt it was important to make sure the general public had priority to access the vaccinations.
“It’s not that we don’t care about the inmates because we do, but we wanted the general public to be vaccinated first, and at that time the Johnson & Johnson was still on hold and we were not sure when or if it was coming back,” Burkhart said.
The first report of cases in the jail were reported on April 28. According to the timeline provided by Burkhart, the sheriff’s department called the Hancock County Health Department and the Indiana Department of Health that day; vaccinations began two days later.
The jail continues to offer the vaccine to prisoners and will do so as long as inmates want it, Harris said.
