File photo Belmont County Sheriff David Lucas, deputies and staff are taking precautions after an inmate and staff members tested positive for COVID-19 at the county jail.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Belmont County’s COVID-19 cases continue to rise, and the sheriff’s office provided an update Tuesday on the positive cases found among staff and an inmate at the Belmont County Jail.

“We’ve been pretty busy,” Chief Deputy James Zusack said. “We do have confirmed staff that tested positive. They’re in quarantine at this time.”

This was the first instance of cases at the jail through the pandemic so far. Prior to this week, protective and sanitary measures had been sufficient to keep the installation free of coronavirus despite it being near the Belmont Correctional Institution, which was designated a “hot spot” by the state at one point during summer.

“We’ve been doing this since March,” Zusack said of the precautions. “We’ve been pretty lucky. What we did, we just tightened down everything. We gave all the inmates masks to wear.”

For security reasons, he did not say how many staff members had tested positive. He confirmed that one inmate has tested positive.

“He is secluded from the rest of the inmates at this point,” Zusack said.

He declined to speculate about how the infected people might have contracted the virus.

In the past, the jail has faced serious issues of overcrowding, with more than 200 people housed at a time at the 144-bed facility. There are currently 131 inmates, according to the jail roster.

“We’re working hand-in-hand with (the judges) in a case by case scenario,” Zusack said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Health Director Robert Sproul reported Belmont County is now at a total of 820 positive cases since the pandemic arrived, with 721 recoveries and 68 people with active cases in isolation at home. He reported six people hospitalized and that 25 people residents died after contracting the virus in Belmont County. The deaths include nine inmates at the Belmont Correctional Institution.

The county’s numbers are climbing compared to the 45 active cases Friday, but there have also been five more recoveries since Sunday.

Union Local School District reported its second cases since the start of the pandemic, this one involving a staff member at the high school. Schools in Martins Ferry, Shadyside and St. Clairsville have also experienced isolated infections.

Sproul has said the new increase in cases cannot be attributed to any common factor, and they are occurring across the county.