3 more test positive for COVID-19 at Kane County juvenile center
One youth detainee and two more employees at a Kane County juvenile detention center have tested positive for COVID-19, officials announced Tuesday.
A second round of testing revealed the three additional cases at the Kane County Juvenile Justice Center, an 80-bed facility operating on lockdown and with a reduced population to help stem the spread of the coronavirus.
The juvenile remains in medical isolation, and the staff are self-isolating at home, officials said.
Earlier this month, one detainee and one employee were the first reported COVID-19 cases at the center in St. Charles.
The first detainee who tested positive for the virus was taken to the emergency room at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva. Six other juveniles who shared his unit were isolated in quarantine.
All seven have since returned to the general population within the facility, said Doug Naughton, Kane County court administrator.
The employee with the positive case and other staff who went into isolation from the first batch of testing on Aug. 5 also have returned to work.
The Illinois Department of Public Health initially conducted testing of about 110 people, including all detained youth, staff, maintenance workers and others connected to the facility. The center brought in a private company to run another round of testing at the same scale.
"We're still yet to determine whether or not we're going to test for a third time," Naughton said.
One of the new employee cases is evidently roommates with the staff member who originally tested positive, Naughton said. Most of the youth detainees have had mild symptoms.
The center has the capacity to hold 80 juveniles, but now has about 30 who are 18 and younger.
"Many of those were released early on when the pandemic started as we started to reduce populations," Naughton said. " ... The intent was only to keep kids with weapons charges or charges of violence."
All the detained youth have surgical masks, while the staff have N95 masks, Naughton said.
The center currently is not accepting new admissions, but plans to return to normal operations on or about Aug. 24. The lockdown also means detainees will be allowed to be transported to another location only for a medical emergency.
"We are anticipating being on lockdown for roughly another week if everything holds steady," Naughton said.
Chief Judge Clint Hull has called for preparing for the resumption of school classes and family visitation when the lockdown is lifted. The regional office of education is providing educational materials and activities in the interim.
"If we can get back on the 24th, we would hope that we would have the classes start later that week," Naughton said.
Nationally, 1,603 youths and 2,056 employees in juvenile facilities have known cases of COVID-19 as of Aug. 14, according to the Sentencing Project, an advocacy group promoting reforms in the criminal justice system.