TROUP COUNTY, Ga. (WRBL) – According to Sergeant Stewart Smith, the Public Information Officer for the Troup County Sheriff’s Office, the Troup County Jail does not currently have any positive COVID-19 cases.

“We’ve been very proactive in our mitigation measures. We never stopped any of that that we started several months ago and we’ve had employees get vaccinated and we’ve had inmates get vaccinated,” said Smith.

Smith said the jail experienced a surge of cases in the fall and was averaging two or three cases a week since the beginning of the year.

He also said the sheriff’s office was anticipating an increase in cases following the surge of cases during the holidays and credits not having a surge to having employees take precautions including getting vaccinated.

Inmates are also receiving a pre-screening when they are booked into the jail including completing a medical questionnaire and receiving medical attention if they present any symptoms.

Smith said the sheriff’s office is following protocols like maintaining visitations online, keeping inmate movement to a minimum and completing court hearings online to help keep the numbers low. Visitors and staff members are also required to wear a mask on the premises.

“We’re going to keep these measures in place as long as COVID is doing what it is doing and obviously we’ll have waves where it is up or it’s down in the community and so we’re certainly monitoring that,” said Smith.

The sheriff’s office will also be offering vaccines to the inmates again within the next few weeks to help keep the cases low.