NEW ORLEANS — Thirteen additional inmates at the Orleans Parish Justice Center have had tests come back positive for the coronavirus since Friday, the sheriff's office reported Monday.
There had been only two positive cases among the 751 inmates at the justice center as of Friday.
In addition to those 15, the statement from the sheriff's office said that seven other inmates are exhibiting signs of the virus.
There are also 29 employees that have tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak began. That is out of 896 employees at the sheriff's office. In addition there are 10 employees of the Justice Center's contracted medical provider WellPath, which provides medical services to the center.
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The sheriff's office said the common denominator in the cases among inmates is that they were housed in the same area.
"They were all housed in one of OJC's four inmate housing units," said the statement issued Monday. "We have been medically segregating inmates as deemed necessary to contain the virus on that unit."
She statement said that the center is attempting to acquire enough testing kits to test all inmates and staff.