WHITESTOWN — The Oneida County Correctional Facility is expected to be back up and running by tonight or Friday morning after a scabies scare put the facility in lockdown this week.

All that’s left is one final shipment of medicinal lotion to give the last few inmates a good scrub down, jail officials said.

Chief Deputy Gabrielle O. Liddy said this morning that "the majority of the jail is free of quarantine," and that "we’re hoping that by later on this afternoon or tomorrow morning, we will be at 100 percent."

Liddy said all 464 inmates had to be cleaned, along with their cells, clothing and bedding, after one inmate was found with scabies at about 3 p.m. Tuesday. A second inmate was found with the same skin disease a few hours later, once the lockdown had begun. Both inmates are male, and their identities were not released. Liddy said they are being held in the infirmary for treatment.

No further cases of scabies have been discovered. No staff members were infected, she said.

Scabies is a parasitic infection of the skin caused by a very small species of mite, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. Scabies is spread by direct, skin-to-skin contact with an infected person, and can spread rapidly in crowded conditions.

"It can spread so fast, it was our better judgement to lock everything down" and get everyone cleaned, Liddy stated. However, the jail had to order more medicinal lotion, and the last shipment was expected sometime today, she said.

Another reason for the full facility lockdown was because the first inmate with scabies was brought into the facility on June 5, and was then moved around to three different housing units before the infection was discovered on Tuesday.

"It was more of a precautionary measure," Liddy said of the lockdown.

The county jail is part of the Law Enforcement Building on Judd Road. It can house 634 inmates. The jail has a 2012 budget of $22,740,279.