A total of 22 new Covid-19 cases have been reported in an outbreak at the Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport.
One staff member and 21 inmates have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Human Services Secretary Mike Smith. The 22 cases were detected during testing conducted Feb. 23.
Smith, speaking at a press conference Friday, called the test results “troubling.”
On Thursday, the prison was placed on a full lockdown while contact tracers began their work, according to the state Department of Corrections.
“We are trying to figure out the best way that we can to meet this challenge,” Smith said, adding that the department was working to determine how to keep the virus from entering facilities.
“That’s going to be key here,” he said.
As of late Friday afternoon, no prisoners who tested positive were exhibiting “symptoms that would require infirmary-level care or hospital-level care,” according to Rachel Feldman, a corrections department spokesperson.
As of late Friday afternoon, Feldman said, the Newport facility had a total of 351 inmates. When this week’s testing was conducted, there were slightly more inmates: 355.
A “rapid response team” run by the Department of Corrections and Department of Health are outlining steps for additional testing at the Newport facility.
“This facility will be tested multiple, multiple times to make sure that we can isolate and make sure this doesn’t spread,” Smith said.
A staff member at the Middlebury Probation and Parole Office has also tested positive, according to the Department of Corrections. As of Friday, a total of six staff members and 30 inmates across the state’s corrections system are positive for the virus.
In addition to the Newport facility, full lockdowns are in place at Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans and the Northeast Correctional Complex in St. Johnsbury as a result of positive cases at those prisons.
The remaining in-state prisons are in modified lockdown.
A modified lockdown provides for “cohorting in groups that allow for social distancing, given the space available,” according to the corrections department. In a full lockdown, movements are more restricted, with meals and medications brought to prisoners in their cell.
The outbreak reported Friday at Newport is among the largest in the state prison system since the Covid-19 pandemic began earlier this year.
Over the summer, a total of 185 inmates held at an out-of-state, private prison tested positive for the coronavirus. That outbreak took place at the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler, Mississippi, which is run by CoreCivic, one of the largest prison operators in the country.
Through late March into May, an outbreak at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans resulted in 45 inmates and 18 staff members testing positive.
Defender General Matthew Valerio, whose department oversees the state’s Prisoners’ Rights Office, said Friday afternoon that he has been working with corrections leaders to address the outbreak.
“We have come to agreement on a number of treatment protocols,” Valerio said, adding that those protocols are to bring the facilities in line during an outbreak with what would occur at other long-term care facilities.
