One person serving time in the Larimer County work release program has tested positive for coronavirus and is being isolated at home.
The Larimer County Department of Health confirmed on Tuesday the one positive case at the Alternative Sentencing Department in Fort Collins. Others within the program who had close contact with that individual also have been isolated, according to the health department.
The case was confirmed on Tuesday, and officials within the Alternative Sentencing Department informed all of those housed at the facility that morning.
Katie O’Donnell, spokeswoman with the health department, said that the individual reported no symptoms on Saturday morning, but that changed by the end of the day.
“By Saturday evening, they started not feeling well,” O’Donnell said in an email on Tuesday. “They were immediately isolated and tested. Per guidance from the Health Department, that individual has been sent home for the remainder of their isolation time.”
Contact tracing specialists with the health department assessed who at the facility had close contact with that individual, and those people — a total of 10 — were also placed on quarantine. They will be allowed to leave the facility on medical furlough to serve their quarantine orders at home.
The Alternative Sentencing Department is a facility located near the county jail that allows people sentenced for nonviolent crimes to serve their sentencing in a different way. Programs include work release, which is where inmates leave the program each day to work and report back each night.
The 11 people who were sent home — the positive case and 10 others — were housed within two pods that share a bathroom.
“Those are the only groups that would have been around the individual,” O’Donnell said, stressing that the other inmates who remain at the facility are considered safe. “There’s no other interaction.”
Justin Lawless, who is serving 70 days for a noise ordinance violation, said he does not feel like quarantining just the two pods is enough.
“I have 70 days to complete here and am scared I’m risking my life in here, and I have two daughters and a wife at home,” he said in an email.
“The man that tested positive was in the housing area with everyone days prior to him being tested. So we don’t know who all he could have infected in the days he was around everyone. We all share the same ventilation because the housing area is all central air.
“Back in May, I was to start my program and it was set off until Aug. 10 due to COVID. And now there was a man who tested positive for COVID and we are all still being housed??”
His wife, too, is worried, saying: “It’s a community pod. Everybody is in bunks, and they all walk around together. It’s not like jails where they are in cells. It’s like day camp. It’s a community. Who knows how far this could have gone?”
O’Donnell stressed that health officials believe the rest of the people in the facility are safe. They are practicing social distancing with the bunks at least 6 feet apart and other safety measures, anyone who may have had close contact was sent home, and while the facility does have shared air circulation, that does not pose a risk, according to O’Donnell.
“There is shared air, but that’s not how the virus is spread,” she said. “It’s that direct particle spread.”
Health officials will continue to monitor symptoms and conditions closely to prevent the spread of the virus within the facility. And the health department is offering tests to anyone who may have been exposed within the facility, and to all inmates and workers, to anyone who wants to be tested.
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August 26, 2020 at 09:41AM
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Larimer County confirms 1 COVID case in work release - Loveland Reporter-Herald
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