News File Photo A woman walks toward the main entrance of the old Alpena County Jail in this October 2021 News archive photo.

ALPENA — A COVID-19 outbreak at the Alpena County Jail has led to isolation of inmates and the quarantining of several staff members, jail officials announced on Tuesday.

The first of seven inmates currently sickened by the coronavirus tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend, Alpena County Sheriff Steven Kieliszewski said.

Jail staff are testing inmates who show COVID-19 symptoms and all new inmates for the sickness, moving those who test positive to isolation and monitoring their vital signs, following protocol established by the jail’s inmate medical provider, Kieliszewski said.

Jail staff have shuffled inmates around the county’s old jail building in Alpena, removing those testing negative from smaller cells and “using every space we possibly can” to isolate those sickened, including the use of maximum security and isolation cells, the sheriff said.

Kieliszewski would not say how many corrections officers or other staff have contracted the sickness, citing security concerns.

Infected staff quarantined at home. The resulting reduction in available officers has not impacted the jail’s ability to operate, although Kieliszewski called that possibility a “huge concern,” along with the possibility of spread to road patrol officers.

No Alpena County Sheriff’s Office road patrol officers have contracted COVID-19, Kieliszewski said.

Kieliszewski could not say how the outbreak started.

Some staff members first showed symptoms a few weeks ago. Before that, multiple inmates arriving at the jail tested positive for COVID-19 and were isolated without apparent transmission of their sickness, he said.

The jail still accepts new inmates, testing each upon entry and isolating any who test positive, as has been the jail’s policy since early 2020.

The outbreak will not impact the Sheriff’s Office’s plans to relocate inmates to the county’s new jail, Kieliszewski said. He anticipates that move will happen by the end of this month.

The jail’s current staff of 18 ― enough to staff the new jail ― includes four corrections officers from Alcona County, hired after that jail stopped housing inmates earlier this year.

The old jail holds 69 inmates. Its current population of 55 includes 10 inmates from Montmorency County, which also closed its jail this year.

No inmates have encountered serious medical issues related to the current COVID-19 outbreak, according to Kieliszewski.

As of Monday, Michigan health officials report 16 new and ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks in jails, prisons, and detention centers, according to state data.