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COVID outbreak at Mecklenburg jail sickens dozens of inmates, isolates hundreds more

Story By Michael Gordon | August 25, 2021 8:19 PM

The Delta variant now makes up more than 93% of all new COVID-19 cases as it continues to spread across the country. Here’s how to slow the spread. BY DAVID CARACCIO | CLEVELAND CLINIC

Charlotte attorney Tim Emry, who’s been active in the effort to lower the jail population to slow the spread of disease among inmates, said McFadden should require his employees to be vaccinated. He called the current outbreak “tragic and frustrating.”

“Much like a hospital or nursing home, the jail’s staff are dealing with a highly vulnerable population,” Emry said in a Wednesday email to the Observer.

“If health systems are mandating vaccinations for at will employees, I don’t understand why Sheriff McFadden doesn’t do the same. Failing to protect the people in his care is creating a crisis that I fear will become deadly, if it isn’t already.”

The Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Janet Parker said “We remain confident in the protocols our staff and contract medical providers have implemented to manage and prevent the spread of COVID-19 in our facilities,” McFadden said in a Wednesday news release. “As cases continue to increase in the community we encourage everyone to get vaccinated and will continue to educate and offer the COVID-19 vaccine to our resident population.”

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