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Lancaster County tax office closed after positive COVID case; 25 case outbreak at jail

Herald - 2/2/2021

Feb. 2—LANCASTER, S.C. — Lancaster, SC

Lancaster County closed its tax collection office Tuesday after an employee tested positive for COVID-19, officials said.

And at the same time, the Lancaster County jail is dealing with an outbreak of 25 inmates and staff who are positive with coronavirus, while the York County jail added more inmate cases after an outbreak was found last week.

Lancaster treasurer and tax collection

The Lancaster County Treasurer's Office in the county building in downtown Lancaster closed Tuesday after the positive test of the employee, said Steve Willis, Lancaster County Administrator.

Employees were sent home, Willis said.

Lancaster County has almost 100,000 residents, census figures show.

The treasurer's office collects taxes for the county, Willis said. No in-person services will be available for the rest of Tuesday and the office could be closed for the rest of the week, Willis said. The stoppage of in-person services includes the drive-through window, Willis said.

Tax payments can still be made online, Willis said.

County officials have asked the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control about possibly re-opening the drive-through window later this week, Willis said.

"We hope to have more information for the public by late Tuesday or Wednesday about how services will be handled," Willis said.

Lancaster Jail COVID outbreak, York jail cases rise

Eighteen inmates and seven detention workers tested positive for COVID this week, said Doug Barfield, spokesman for the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office.

The inmate population is less than 100 and fluctuates daily as arrests are made and others are released on bail after bond hearings, Barfield said.

Sheriff officials are unsure how the 18 inmates and the seven jailers caught the disease.

"We may never know how the persons became infected," Barfield said.

None of the inmates or staff required hospitalization, Barfield said. The persons either showed minor symptoms or no symptoms, Barfield said.

The inmates who tested positive have been separated from the rest of the population at the jail and are being monitored by contractor medical staff, Barfield said.

Jails must remain open during pandemic

In South Carolina, sheriffs have a legal mandate to operate county jails.

"Corrections sites have to be open," Barfield said. "We have to operate the jail even with this pandemic going on. We are fully staffed and the jail is safe and secure."

New arrivals at the jail are checked for coronavirus symptoms and kept out of general population for a period of time before they are placed with inmates who have been in the jail awaiting trial, Barfield said.

York and Chester jails

York County's jail is dealing with a coronavirus outbreak. On Jan. 26, York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson said testing found 47 inmates and three staff were positive with COVID-19.

Since then, 13 more inmates have tested positive, sheriff's office spokesman Trent Faris said.

The positive inmates are in a quarantine unit, Faris said.

The Chester County jail has one inmate positive for COVID, said Grant Suskin, spokesman for the Chester County Sheriff's Office. That inmate is separated from other inmates and did not require hospitalization, Suskin said.

The three county jails stopped outside visits after the pandemic began in March 2020. Bond hearings are done by video conference. Trials in all of South Carolina have been postponed by the S.C. Supreme Court because of the pandemic.

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