By: Bob Ward, Fox 25 News, October 8, 2020
No Sign of Second Spike at Worcester County Jail
WORCESTER, Mass. — At the Worcester County Jail in West Boylston, the COVID 19 infection rate remains extremely low.
“We tested over 225-30 people over the last few months. We’ve had only 15 positives. 4 were inmates,” Worcester Country Sheriff Lew Evangelidis told me.
The Worcester Jail’s low numbers stand in stark contrast to the Essex County Jail in Middleton where this week nearly 200 people tested positive for the Coronavirus, more than 70 percent of those testing positive, showed no symptoms.
“There was something unusual,” Sheriff Evangelidis said of the Middleton spike. “They had real great control over it. But they are not sure exactly why it happened.”
In Worcester, Sheriff Evangelidis credits changes in protocol, before the pandemic struck, for sparing the Worcester Jail from a large spike.
Those protocols include careful screening and segregation of every incoming inmate and regular deep cleanings of the facility.
Officials say the inmates themselves have played a key role in keeping the facility safe.
Today, Sheriff Evangelidis believes his staff has COVID-19 under control.
“If we keep tabs on it, we monitor this closely, keep our defenses up, as we’ve done, we can control this,” said the Sheriff. “There’s more chance of getting(this) outside (the jail) than there is inside. We believe we have a safe environment here.”
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