Facilities Manager Doug Carey talks with county commissioners at an Oct. 19 meeting.
Lewis County will spend $332,000 — double what was expected — to construct two isolation cells in the county jail. The amount was the lowest of four bids the county received.
The idea is to isolate individuals before they are booked in order to perform medical evaluations and stifle any spread of infection.
“This is in response to not just the COVID crisis, but any pathogens coming into the jail,” Facilities Manager Doug Carey told commissioners Monday. “This project will create that space so they can be isolated from the main building air system while the medical evaluations go on.”
The jail already has two isolation rooms that use negative airflow to limit the spread of any airborne pathogens. According to county officials, the plan to build two new rooms predated the jail’s August outbreak, when 11 people tested positive for COVID-19.
