COVID Surge Continues in Nashville Jails

As the Omicron variant spreads rapidly around the country, COVID-19 cases are continuing to surge in Nashville's jails. 

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Davidson County Sheriff's Office announced, there are 372 incarcerated people with COVID-19 and 752 on restriction of some kind. The number of infected people in the city's jails has more than tripled in just eight days; on Jan. 10, 110 incarcerated people had tested positive. 

After pandemic-inspired efforts to reduce the city's jail population saw some success in 2020, the number of jailed people in Nashville now sits at 1,629 according to the sheriff's office. That number had gotten down below 1,000. 

One jailed person, a 64-year-old woman, has died of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.