Cook County officials: COVID-19 absent in juvenile detainees

None of the 88 general population residents selected for testing at Cook County's Juvenile Temporary Detention Center tested positive for COVID-19. As a result, health care professionals believe the virus is not present in the detention center's general population, according to a news release from the office of Cook County Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans.

To date, no detainee in the JTDC's general population has tested positive for the virus, said spokesman Patrick Milhizer.

So far, three newly admitted detainees and seven employees have tested positive for the virus. The new residents, like all new JTDC admissions, remain in a separate area for 14 days. Those three residents had not been admitted to the general population by the time of their positive tests.

The 88 residents selected for the COVID-19 tests were randomly selected or reside in an area where employees - who subsequently tested positive - worked before they tested positive and stopped reporting to work.

The detention center houses 160 residents, down from 212 on March 16.