Even to an outsider’s eye, however, the drop in COVID-19 cases at the jail is significant. In March and April, the jail counted more than 900 cases among detainees and staffers, and seven detainees died at local hospitals after testing positive.

But as of Tuesday, only 11 detainees out of about 4,800 are positive, Dart said, and eight or nine of them entered the jail with the virus.

“We’re testing at the door now,” he said. “You could literally say being in the jail is one of the safest places to be right now.”

Detainees are tested upon intake, kept separate from the general population for two weeks and tested again before moving to a regular tier, said Dr. Chad Zawitz, lead physician for infectious diseases at the jail and one of the paper’s authors.