BEAUMONT, Texas — COVID-19 cases are on the rise across Southeast Texas.
The Beaumont Public Health Department reported 279 new cases on Wednesday.
The Port Arthur Health Department reported two cases of the omicron variant in Jefferson County.
As the community takes precautions to ensure we don't experience yet another surge, so is the Jefferson County Jail.
Jefferson County Sheriff Zena Stephens said it all starts when you first come into the jail.
New inmates will go through a different booking process
to make sure they're not potentially spreading the virus to other inmates or staff members.
"As people are booked into the jail, we put them into transitions, a transition dorms, so they're not exposed to everybody else that's already here that may not have the virus,” Stephens said.
Sheriff Stephens said the case counts have gone from zero to eighty in just a few weeks.
"We're up to 70 inmates now in total that have tested positive up to 10 employees at the Correctional Facility alone,” Stephens said.
She said inmates who test positive do have the option of getting infusions.
"We've been transporting them down to it and those who want to have that treatment can go to the infusion center and get in get that to minimize any symptoms that they may have,” Stephens said.
Although visitations are still open and restrictions are minimal, that may change as cases continue to rise.
"We'll be looking at possibly reducing the hours that people are allowed to visit," Stephens said.
She also said they are reducing work programs outside of jail.
"We have inmates working with our livestock on the outside, so we'll probably be minimizing some of that because I don't, you know, first the risk to them getting exposed but also for them going out and bringing it back into the facility to the dorms that they sleep in,” Stephens said.
Stephens said while the idea of limiting visitations and work programs isn't ideal, she's trying to keep people safe from this new, more contagious variant.
"I haven't figured out how to keep my employees 100% safe,” Stephens said. “My family 100% safe, or inmates and so those are people that's, you know, yes. The uptick concerns me,"
Stephens said the spike among correctional officers has put a strain on the department, forcing officers to work overtime to make up for the ten correctional officers who are out right now.