Another Bexar County Jail Inmate Tests Positive
Second Inmate Tests Positive
Saturday, a second inmate at the Bexar County Jail tested positive for COVID-19. The inmate was booked into the Bexar County Jail on March 17. He did not display any signs of infection at that time. Again, we’re looking at more than three weeks before this inmate fell ill which makes it highly likely that he contracted the disease in the jail. According to the Sheriff’s Office, the second inmate was never in contact with the first inmate who tested positive.
We’ve already heard the Sheriff’s Office say they decontaminated the jail but we never got any details as to what that entailed. From what we know of their last cleaning effort, it only involved spraying down the officer’s work area with disinfectant. Now we’re hearing that they will be investigating how this inmate became infected.
Well, shouldn’t they have already been doing that with the first inmate? He was in the jail for a month before getting sick. If they have ANY common sense at all they have to have known that he contracted it while in the jail. Why did they wait for a second inmate to test positive before they decided to look into how the virus is being spread to inmates? And the truth is, who will trust any results they come up with anyway? The Salazar administration hasn’t shown any competence up to this point. Why would we think they would do a good job at contact tracing?
Bexar County Sheriff’s Office Stats
According to the KSAT 12 article which in turn cites the Sheriff’s Office press release,
“A total of two inmates at the Bexar County Jail, 14 deputies, one video visitation civilian employee and one dispatcher have tested positive for COVID-19. A Bexar County facilities maintenance employee assigned to the Bexar County Jail also tested positive earlier this week.”
Note that these numbers only show the people who have tested positive. They do not include people who are out on administrative leave for possible exposure and those waiting for test results.
Overall Bexar County Stats
As of Saturday, Bexar County was up to 723 people who have contracted the coronavirus, with 27 deaths. But the worst part is that 1/3 of the cases were contracted through community spread. That means this disease is beginning to pick up. While we are starting to see the surge we expected, Governor Greg Abbott has decided to lift the lock down next week, pretty much guaranteeing that we will have a drastic upswing in infections. According to Abbott, “We will focus on protecting lives while restoring livelihoods.”
At the current time, those two things are not compatible. This is an extremely foolish move that puts many people at risk. Hopefully our city leaders will not lift the work from home restrictions. There will still be companies who appear to care about money more than they do people, such as Hobby Lobby and GameStop. Companies that only care about money will open regardless of the danger since their owners are not the ones taking any risks.
Stay home. Wear a face mask if you must go out. Wash your hands. We can get through this with minimal damage if we do what we need to do to stop the spread.