Sheriff: Muskingum Co. Jail is Prepared for Coronavirus

The Muskingum Co. Sheriff is weighing in on how coronavirus is affecting daily operations at the jail.

Sheriff Matt Lutz tells WHIZ News medical screening is part of their daily intake process.

“We’re probably as prepared as we can be to a certain extent because of all of the infectious diseases that we have to deal with coming into the jail, anyway. For us, it’s all about the screening process of the inmates and of newly-arrested people that come into the jail. We have a pretty good screening process with the questions that we ask of those folks. We contract with Premiere Health which provides nurses down at the jail for us,” Lutz says.

Lutz is a past-president of the Buckeye Sheriff’s Association. He communicates regularly with the Governor’s office. The sheriff talks about Governor DeWine’s declaring of the state of emergency Monday afternoon.

“This is something that I think folks need to take seriously, but it’s not something to get alarmed about yet. I think the Governor explained, the reason why they went to the State of Emergency was to be able to do some paperwork and get some stuff done behind the scenes that you normally wouldn’t be able to get done. There’s always a reason behind something that they do. You hope that reason has been thought out, talked about, and that’s the best reason for them at that point,” he adds.

Lutz points to misinformation on social media and urges people to be wary of what you read about coronavirus on some websites.