Seven more incarcerated individuals at the Newport prison have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total cases from an outbreak at the state’s largest correctional facility to 39.
A Covid-19 case has also been reported at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, the state’s only women’s prison, in South Burlington.
The Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport reports 32 positive cases among incarcerated individuals and seven cases among staff members, according to Rachel Feldman, a spokesperson for the corrections department.
The seven latest positive Covid-19 results for incarcerated individuals, reported Wednesday, stem from mass testing at the facility on Monday. All staff results from that round of testing are negative, Feldman said.
Six of the seven new cases at the Newport prison are among individuals who live in a housing unit where a staff member who tested positive worked, authorities said, and where 21 other cases were recorded among incarcerated individuals during testing on Aug, 23, 25 and 27.
The Newport prison is on lockdown with contact tracing underway. A new round of testing is set for Thursday.
As of Wednesday afternoon the Newport prison housed 406 incarcerated individuals. It has room for 433 medium-security prisoners.
A breakdown of cases at the Newport prison shows 20 of the incarcerated individuals who tested positive had been vaccinated, and 12 were not, Feldman said. Three of the staff members testing positive for the coronavirus had been vaccinated, and four were not.
An incarcerated person at Chittenden Regional who had been in intake quarantine was tested Monday, and was positive for Covid-19.
“This was caught on the day-one test,” Feldman said. “Contact tracing showed no risk to the general population or staff.”
Statewide, there are 36 Covid-19 positive incarcerated individuals and eight Covid-19 positive staff members, spread across five of the state’s six prisons, according to Feldman.
Meanwhile, a vaccination mandate for state workers in Vermont prisons went into effect Wednesday, after the Scott administration reached agreement with the staff members’ union on how it would be carried out.
State employees working in the prisons need to attest they have been vaccinated or undergo regular testing for Covid-19 and be required to wear a face mask on the job.
“Failure to submit a truthful attestation may result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination,” Susanne Young, secretary of administration, wrote in a notice to corrections department employees, informing them of the policy.
Employees who were not fully vaccinated by Wednesday are required to undergo regular on-site testing for Covid-19 and must wear a face mask while on the job, the policy states.
Workers who refuse to comply with the testing and face covering requirements will be placed on unpaid leave for up to five days pending disciplinary proceedings, according to Steve Howard, executive director of the Vermont State Employees’ Association, the union representing corrections workers.
Also, according to Young’s notice to workers, if an employee in the corrections union who is fully vaccinated contracts Covid-19, “regardless of how it was contracted, they will be paid for the applicable period of isolation/quarantine as outlined by the Vermont Department of Health without the need to utilize their earned leave.”
Howard, speaking Wednesday, said he doubted the policy will ever lead to a disciplinary hearing for a state correctional worker.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a problem because they have had mask mandates and weekly testing and I don’t think we’ve had anybody refuse to wear a mask and refuse to be tested,” Howard said.
Those masking and testing mandates were dropped in June, when Covid cases were in decline and Scott lifted the state of emergency for Vermont.
