Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone says his office will provide masks to officers to protect them against the coronavirus.
Penzone says officers will be given high grade N95 masks, while some inmates who will be held accountable will be provided with surgical masks. He says that inmates also will be provided cleaning chemicals and sanitizers to keep their spaces clean.
The sheriff says officers are monitoring 21 inmates who are potentially symptomatic for COVID-19. However, not one of them has tested positive yet.
“What’s most important to me is making sure we isolate, and if they have a positive, that we identify that as quickly as possible so that we can determine who that person had exposure to prior to the positive test.”
One Sheriff’s Office employee has tested positive for COVID-19 so far, but Penzone says the employee has since recovered.
