Keep Bailing

In the U.S., it is reported the Swine Flu has killed approximately 400 Americans. the virus may have infected approximately 1 million people across the nation.

If you’d like to visit an inmate at the Elmwood Jail in Santa Clara County, you may have to wait for quite a long while. A new concern over Swine Flu now has officials locking the doors and turning visitors away.

Although this ban of visitors affects approximately 20 percent of the inmates in Santa Clara County, it’s stated that only four inmates have  actually come down with the flu-like symptoms.

However, since the first person has become ill,  approximately 50 more inmates  have begun to show signs of low grade fevers, according to jail medical staff.  As of Friday, the ban was widened. There is now a ban on visitors to the Milpitas jail all together.  This shut out of visitors will effect about 3,000 men and women which is almost the county’s total jail population. 

At least 7,000 visitors per month cross the threshold of the Elmwood mens jail alone. Officials believe it’s best to be prudent in these times, as approximately 92 people are believed to have died in California.  Nine of them are reported to have succumbed to the virus in the Santa Clara County alone.

As noted in our previous posts about H1N1,  Swine Flu break outs in San Diego, quarantine at the Orange County Jail, jails seem to be a place where an epidemic is just waiting to happen, as several people are forced to be in close quarters together where the virus can spread easily. In the interest of public safety, it’s probably better to be safe than sorry.