OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Some of Nebraska's jails and prisons continue to struggle to control the spread of the coronavirus within their walls.
That struggle was on display this week in the Douglas County Jail, which on Thursday confirmed 35 new COVID-19 cases among the jail's employees and seven new cases among inmates. Since the onset of the pandemic, a total of 92 employees, two contractors and 66 prisoners have tested positive at the jail.
"Given the spread of the virus in the facility, we anticipate there are more positive cases," jail Director Mike Myers said. "We are closely monitoring our population and will continue to test anyone who shows symptoms."
The Nebraska state prisons system has also seen new confirmed cases nearly every day this week among staff. The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services said Thursday that two more staffers with the Diagnostic and Evaluation Center in Lincoln had tested positive, bringing the total number of prison staffers across the state infected since the start of the outbreak to 54.
While the seven-day rolling average of new coronavirus cases in Nebraska has not increased, the seven-day average of daily deaths in the state has risen over the past two weeks from 1.86 deaths per day on July 30 to three deaths per day by Thursday.