Chattooga County Sheriff Mark Schrader says that he is taking extra precautions after nearly half of his jail staff either tested positive for COVID-19 or began showing symptoms on Monday.

Sheriff Schrader told WZQZ News that several of the jail staff had tested positive over the weekend and then on Sunday night another jailer began running a fever.  The sheriff said that so far, no inmates at the Chattooga County Jail were showing any symptoms – or tested positive for COVID-19.

As of Monday, there were forty-eight inmates being housed in the Chattooga County Jail.  Sheriff Schrader said that he is working with the county jail’s medical provider and with Commissioner Jason Winters to get all of the inmates tested for COVID-19.

The sheriff said that he is currently working on plans to handle the situation should any inmates test positive.  Sheriff Schrader says that there just isn’t a way to isolate very many inmates should several test positive for COVID-19.  Also, right now, jails in other counties are not accepting any outside inmates due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the mean time, the sheriff says that his department is taking extra steps to social-distance and sanitize the jail and sheriff’s office.