Dallas County officials say five jail inmates have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown announced Wednesday that an inmate in his 40s tested positive and that four others who were in his pod had symptoms. Later Wednesday, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said those four inmates also tested positive.
The initial positive test on the first inmate came back early Wednesday morning. Brown said he’d been housed in a shared pod with about 50 other inmates and had been in the jail since December. She said health officials were working to determine how he contracted the virus.
Brown had said that the four inmates who showed symptoms had been quarantined, as had those in the pod who weren’t showing symptoms.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.
In Texas, 974 cases of COVID-19 have been reported, along with 12 deaths.