Cook County Sheriff’s Office

2 Cook County Detainees Test Positive for Coronavirus

One of the detainees was housed at a facility where a correctional officer who tested positive for the virus works

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Two Cook County detainees have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s office announced Monday.

According to a press release, the detainees tested positive on Monday for the virus, and are currently being held in isolation cells at Cermak Health Services. Both detainees have been housed there since experiencing flu-like symptoms on March 20.

One of the detainees was housed in the Residential Treatment Unit when he began to exhibit symptoms. A corrections officer who worked in the RTU tested positive for the virus on Sunday, according to the sheriff’s office, and is currently in isolation at home.

Staff at Cermak are ordering tests for anyone with flu-like symptoms, according to the press release.  Staff will continue to monitor detainees in the living units where the individuals who tested positive were housed.

On Monday, Cook County public defenders pushed for “vulnerable people” detained at the Cook County Jail to be released in order to protect them during the coronavirus pandemic. An emergency petition was filed, seeking the release of several groups of people at the jail who are vulnerable to infection.

Among them are older people or those with underlying health conditions, any pregnant women, those being confined on misdemeanor charges, those being held on felony charges which are probationable or non-violent, those who could be out on bail but can’t afford it, and those confined over an arrest warrant or probation violation but who did not commit a violent crime.

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