FIRST COVID-19 CASE AMONG NWSCF INMATES
ST. ALBANS: The Governor’s cabinet announced today that the first face of COVID-19 has been detected in an inmate located at Northwest Correctional Center in St. Albans Town.
This is the first case within the inmate population of Vermont’s Corrections Department, but in the past few days, at least three correctional officers had been positively identified by health officials of contracting the novel coronavirus at Northwest Correctional. A fourth employee of the Department of Corrections was identified as a positive COVID-19 patient, that employee was stationed at the Newport facility.
The State has said in recent days that they are planning on using the St. Johnsbury Correctional Center as a surge facility for any inmates who need to use it- beyond the capacity of the State in other facilities.
Officials have put the entire population at Northwest Correctional Center on lockdown to contain the spread of the virus- delivering food to inmates within their cells and limiting movement throughout the facility.
A recent outbreak of the virus at Burlington Health and Rehab lead the State Health Department to test all the patients at that facility. Those tests indicated that 57% of the positive cases did not show symptoms of the virus.
The state confirmed that the Health Department will respond similarly at Northwest Correctional Center, testing all inmates and staff at the facility. That testing is expected to be conducted within the next 24 hours.
The rapid response Epi team, working with DOC medical staff, will conduct a thorough contact tracing of the recent positive staff and inmate at NWSCF so that additional isolation measures can be taken if appropriate, according to the Department of Corrections.
The inmate began showing symptoms early Monday morning and was immediately tested and placed in the negative pressure cell at NWSCF awaiting test results.
The facility has the capability of providing care for up to six inmates in negative pressure rooms. The State also has four beds at Springfield Correctional Center that has negative pressure rooms.
“We have been very focused on protecting staff and inmates, and are moving quickly to increase testing and put in place even more measures to reduce contact,” said James Baker, Commissioner, Vermont Department of Corrections. “We have been planning for this from the outset of the pandemic and will continue to adjust as we learn more.”
On Monday, April 6 all staff and inmates at the facility were issued masks to wear at all times, the same day the facility went into full lockdown.
The State is also responding by doing a modified lockdown at all other facilities. The modified lockdown is a preventative measure to mitigate any potential spread of the virus. Inmates will receive meals in their cells and be provided out of cell recreation time in small numbers. Additionally, masks will be delivered to all facilities and used by staff and inmates beginning Thursday, April 9.
“From the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Corrections has taken steps to reduce exposure including immediately suspending in-person visits and moving to video visits, reducing the total number of inmates, conducting temperature checks for staff, staging PPE and other equipment to aid in protecting staff and inmates,” said Jim Baker, the Commissioner of Corrections in Vermont.
According to State Officials, there are 199 inmates at Northwest Correctional Center, with about 125 employees. The cost of testing about 324 people was not known as of Wednesday morning.
The news comes as Vermont’s total cases have increased by 30, to a total of 605. The state tested between 450 and 500 tests yesterday.
The fatality rate in Vermont from people known to have contracted the virus has also been updated, remaining at 23 number of fatalities with no new fatalities in the last 24 hours.
We’ll have a full story, as always, in this week’s print edition of the County Courier.
