Sheriff’s enforcement workers in York, Lancaster test positive for COVID-19
A worker at the sheriff’s office in York County, and two deputies in Lancaster County, tested positive in September for COVID-19, officials said.
The York County employee works in the enforcement section, said Trent Faris, spokesman for the York County Sheriff’s Office. The worker is still out of work after testing positive, Faris said.
Two other employees in the enforcement section are home on quarantine after potential exposure to the virus, Faris said.
Since the pandemic began, nine employees have tested positive at the sheriff’s office in York County, officials said. Five are from the enforcement arm of the sheriff’s office, and four are with the detention division.
No inmates at the jail have tested positive for the disease since the beginning of the pandemic, Faris said. The jail population is currently just under 400 inmates.
The sheriff’s office in York has more than 350 employees. Under South Carolina law, sheriffs in all 46 counties run the county jails.
York County, with a population of about 280,000, now has had 5,317 COVID-19 cases and 74 deaths, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Two deputies with the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office are off-duty after testing positive in September, said Doug Barfield, spokesman for the office.
The positive tests follow a county jail employee who tested positive in June, Lancaster officials said. No inmates have tested positive in Lancaster County, Barfield said.
The county, which has a population of almost 100,000, has had 2,087 COVID-19 cases and 48 deaths, state official said.
