After cases double in previous week, covid-19 count holds steady here

Ozark County’s coronavirus case count continued to be 16 confirmed cases at press time Tuesday, the same total reported in last week’s Times – after the number of cases more than doubled the previous week.

After saying on Tuesday, Aug. 11, that 16 cases had been received in the county, the case count dropped to 15 Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 12, when Ozark County Health Center administrator Rhonda Suter announced that one of the recent cases had been “harder to track down, and … was accidentally listed as an Ozark County resident.” 

That put the actual number of cases at 15, she said. At that time, seven cases were quarantined, one was hospitalized and seven cases had recovered.

On Friday, Aug. 14, Suter posted that another positive case had been identified, bringing the total back up to 16. At that time, she said, 884 tests had been done in Ozark County. 

By press time Tuesday, no additional cases had been reported.

Covid cases in Greene County Jail 

Ozark County Sheriff Darrin Reed said Monday that Ozark County has not accepted new inmates from Greene County Jail since the covid-19 virus was confirmed there. 

Since April 2019, Ozark County has had a contract with Greene County to house surplus inmates in the Ozark County Jail. When the contract was announced last year, Reed said it could bring in an average of $45 per inmate per day, which could mean an extra $164,250 a year for the sheriff’s department if Ozark County steadily accommodated 10 Greene County inmates.

KY3.com reported Monday that a total of 90 Greene County Jail inmates and 31 staff members have tested positive for covid-19. Three of the staff members have recovered, the report said.  

In a question-answer exchange with ozarksfirst.com on Aug. 12, a Greene County Sheriff’s officer said Greene County had not sent inmates to other facilities since the outbreak began and that the virus “has been contained to one housing unit.” 

All Greene County Jail inmates and staffers wear masks in the jail at all times, he said. The jail can accommodate 600 inmates, according to the Greene County Sheriff’s website.