ALBANY COUNTY — The homeless shelter, opened in the midst of the pandemic, in an unused wing of the county’s jail continues to grow and now houses 11 residents, said Sheriff Craig Apple at Sunday’s county press briefing.

Three of those residents have found jobs “as a result of getting a new home,” said Apple. His office is reaching out to local businesses and unions to try to find jobs for the remaining residents.

“Our jail population is still around high 290s, which is extremely low considering it’s a 1,000-bed facility,” said Apple.

No inmates have contracted COVID-19, he said. New arrivals are quarantined for 14 days, Apple said, and all of the inmates and staff have masks.

“It’s a battle every day,” he said, since, like a nursing home, the jail is densely populated and infection could spread rapidly. The jal is “constantly disinfected,” said Apple.

Early on, two deputy sheriff’s contracted COVID-19 as did one agency nurse, working at the jail; all of them have recovered. No corrections officers and no emergency medical service workers have contracted the disease, Apple said.

The sheriff’s office continues to receive mostly anonymous and often false complaints about nonessential businesses breaking the requirements to stay shut, Apple said. No arrests have been made. He said that no arrests have been made, either, for people congregating.

Rather, they are spoken to and given masks, the sheriff said.

The sheriff’s office has distributed 135,000 to 140,000 free masks, he said. The masks are packaged in pairs so that one can be washed while the other is worn. Apple stressed the importance of washing masks after each wearing.

He also said, “Don’t throw your masks and gloves on the floor. We’re seeing them all over the county. Please, please, please. We don’t want to have something else spread as a result of that.”

Apple believes the state is sometimes wrongly criticized for not having enough personal protective equipment to distribute. “The whole country let alone the whole world was looking for this at the same time,” he said.

There have been some complaints of price-gouging in the county, Apple said, but none that could be easily prosecuted.

“Shame on you if you’re taking advantage of people in these times,” he said.