Miranda Alam/Special to The Sun
A jail cell at the Clark County Detention Center in downtown Las Vegas on Wednesday, May 16, 2018.
Monday, April 13, 2020 | 5:30 p.m.
An inmate booked at the Clark County Detention Center since November has tested positive for the coronavirus, Metro Police announced Monday.
Three other inmates from the same unit were isolated in negative air-pressure cells Monday morning and were being tested for COVID-19, police said. The remaining inmates in the unit were quarantined, and the area was being sanitized.
All inmates are provided masks to use when outside their cells, police said.
The 31-year-old who tested positive for the novel virus was diagnosed at University Medical Center, where he was taken Sunday, said police, noting he was the first inmate to test positive for COVID-19 within the inmate population.
In late March, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said three inmates, who had displayed symptoms of the virus, had been released with one of them positive for COVID-19. That inmate had spent 11 days at the jail, Lombardo said.
It wasn’t clear when that inmate was infected.
By late January, Metro began implementing measures to mitigate the possible spread of the virus at the jail, which it runs. This came weeks before mandates were placed on Nevadans, police noted.
As of today, they include:
• Additional cleaning
• Sanitation stations at booking areas
• Reduction holding cells at booking by about 60%
• Screening of inmates and jail staffers
• Isolating high-risk inmates; hospitalizing symptomatic ones
• Social distancing
• Stop in misdemeanor arrests unless mandated by law
