6 at Champaign County Jail satellite facility test positive for COVID-19

URBANA, Ill. (WAND) - A total of six people in custody at the Champaign County Jail satellite facility tested positive for COVID-19.

Sheriff Dustun Heuerman said five of the cases are likely to be related. Authorities discovered the first Sunday evening after a prisoner who had gone to Carle for a procedure was tested there. Four incoming prisoners who had been in the same area as the first positive case also tested positive, according to The News-Gazette.

Authorities found the sixth case Monday night. This one is believed to be unrelated to the others.

The infected inmates are isolated away from other prisoners and in separate spaces. None have symptoms, per Heuerman.

According to the newspaper, the first case at the satellite facility was reported May 27. There have now been 15 total infections.

Heuerman said staff has a system for keeping COVID-19 from spreading in the jail's population. Incoming prisoners are kept in booking before seeing a judge. They then spend 14 days quarantining in transitional housing before being housed with other people in the jail.

Heuerman said officials knew they wouldn't be able to keep COVID-19 out of the jail, but feel they have been successful in keeping the virus out of the general population.