COVID-19 Update

Straight Line Projections (at today's Growth Rate):

Dead Americans

• by Election Day: 255,000

• by Year's End:    338,000

Today's COVIDIOT:

The Missoulian:

Juror refuses mask, jailed in virus outbreak

Phillip Dupaul says he thinks the "COVID scare" is exaggerated. But he was pretty unnerved on Monday when the other inmates in his holding cell at the Cascade County Detention Center began laughing, loudly, at the irony when he told them a judge threw him in jail for not wearing a mask. The inmates told him they had all been exposed to one inmate who had the virus. Hours later, Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter would announce a 55-person outbreak at the jail.

Dupaul, 60, refused to wear a mask when he arrived at a Great Falls motel conference center for jury duty on Monday and was ordered to jail. At the same time Dupaul was being booked into the facility, county law enforcement was learning the extent of the outbreak — the worst of any detention center in the state. Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter on Friday issued a press release criticizing the judge for ordering Dupaul to jail while the facility was suffering an outbreak, but did not mention in the statement that jail officials placed Dupaul in general population, rather than in isolation.

Dupaul, meanwhile, argues the judge did not have the authority to jail him and said law enforcement was "wrong" to put him in jail with those who may have been infected.

Dupaul had shown up for jury duty that morning but refused to a wear a mask because he said it hampers his ability to breathe. Judge Larson, presiding over the trial as a substitute for a local judge, gave him three options: wear a mask, wear a shield, or be held in contempt of court and spend 24 hours in jail.

"The judge started saying that this wasn't for my safety, it's for everyone's safety," Dupaul said in a phone interview on Friday. "I said that's fine, but I couldn't wear a mask and I told him it was hard for me to breathe. … I said he didn't have the authority to make me do it, and he seemed to get agitated at that point and said he would put me in jail for 24 hours to think about it."

Officials at the Cascade County Detention Center had announced on Aug. 21, three days earlier, that an inmate had tested positive for the coronavirus. Dupaul said he was booked into jail at 9:15 a.m., and at that point knew only of the one confirmed case. By the end of the day, Cascade County Sheriff Slaughter revealed the jail had tallied 55 cases, 53 inmates and two staff members. Dupaul, at the time, was holed up in the same area with roughly 40 people, he said.

"Inmates are always curious at what the new guy is being detained for, and I told them, 'For not wearing a mask,'" Dupaul said. "The whole cell block started laughing, loudly, and they said 'Don't they know that we have all been infected. We have all been in contact with that guy.'"

Meanwhile, back at school:

WaPo:

Infections rise to more than 1,000 on University of Alabama campus

Coronavirus infections are rising sharply at the University of Alabama, where school officials have reported more than 1,000 cases since classes began Aug. 19.

The university announced Friday that 481 students on its flagship campus in Tuscaloosa tested positive this week, bringing the total number of infections reported there in the past two weeks to 1,043. The university has also reported more than 150 cases among students at its Birmingham campus and 10 at its Huntsville location.

The outbreak represents one of the largest coronavirus clusters reported at any academic institution since the start of the new academic year, painting an alarming picture for densely populated campuses across the country and the communities that surround them.

Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox (D) said the spike in campus infections could threaten both the city’s health-care system and the local economy, which is heavily dependent on the 38,000-student university.

“We don’t know what the community spread may be,” Maddox told The Washington Post on Saturday, adding that it could take two weeks or more to get a clear read on the extent of the outbreak from testing and hospitalization data.

“We’re also talking about thousands of jobs that are at risk in our community if there aren’t in-person classes,” he said. “There’s a lot on the line.”

To slow the spread of the virus, Maddox announced on Monday a shutdown of bars and suspension of bar services in restaurants for two weeks. The university also placed a moratorium on in-person student events and restricted access to Greek houses. University workers were testing students regularly and conducting contact tracing, and ample space remained to isolate those who tested positive, officials said.

Before coming to campus, students were required to complete testing and training, and to report their daily health conditions, according to Monica Watts, a university spokeswoman. There was no evidence that the virus was spreading in classrooms, and no students were currently hospitalized, she said.