SAN ANTONIO – A planned news conference planned by the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office about the coronavirus outbreak in the jail was postponed Thursday morning.
As of Wednesday night, 98 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 at the Bexar County Jail.
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Read the latest updates concerning COVID-19 at the Bexar County Jail, Sheriff’s Office
That’s an increase of 34 cases from Tuesday’s tally. There are 78 active inmate cases at the jail.
Forty-one deputies and one civilian worker have also tested positive, according to BCSO.
So far, 20 inmates, 14 deputies and one civilian worker have recovered.
A Defenders investigation last week revealed that inmates were being fed inconsistently, at odd hours, and that detention officers were forced to make sandwiches for some inmates on April 21 after the meal they were given had spoiled.
Jail officials later blamed the spoiled food issue on the facility’s longtime food vendor.
Earlier this month, inmates complained that they were not being given masks on a regular basis, even tough the masks they were wearing were falling apart.
The number of inmates to test positive for COVID-19 has increased sixfold since then.
Salazar said April 17 that two large shipments of masks would help alleviate the issue.
What is contact tracing and why isn’t BCSO releasing results of it in the jail?
COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new virus, stands for coronavirus disease 2019. The disease first appeared in late December 2019 in Wuhan, China, but spread around the world in early 2020, causing the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic in March. The first case confirmed in the U.S. was in mid-January and the first case confirmed in San Antonio was in mid-February.
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