Chicago jail reports 450 coronavirus cases among inmates, staff

As many as 450 inmates and staff at Chicago’s largest jail have tested positive for coronavirus. This also implies the Cook County Jail marks one of the nation’s largest outbreaks of the respiratory illness at a single site so far in the pandemic.

The situation gained national attention earlier this week when inmates posted handmade signs pleading for help in the windows of their cells overlooking a public street.

To this end, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office said in a written statement on Thursday: "Sheriff’s officers and county medical professionals are aggressively working round-the-clock to combat the unprecedented global coronavirus pandemic."

According to Reuters, the measures include opening an off-site 500-bed quarantine and care facility for prisoners, an effort to move as many inmates as possible from double to single cells, and the opening of a testing site at the jail.

In addition, front line staff members are being checked for fever at the start of each shift and issued protective equipment if they interact with inmates.

In a similar case in Monroe, Washington, inmates at a minimum-security prison vandalised the facility in a protest on Wednesday evening after officials announced that six prisoners had tested positive for COVID-19.

Across the United States more than 16,600 people have died from COVID-19 and 463,000 positive cases have been confirmed.

Thousands of inmates are now being released from detention to determine if they may be infected by the coronavirus and at risk of spreading it into the community.